Megaman X4 - Zero's Tale
by Lord Odous
Summary: Maverick Hunters and Repliforce, work together to vanquish uncontrollable Mavericks and defend peace. However, someone had been pulling the strings from behind and caused these two armies to collide. Zero found himself caught in between as he had strong ties with the Repliforce, at the same time commanding a unit of Maverick Hunters. War seemed inevitable...
1. Preface

**This will be a direct novelization of the game, Megaman X4, for most parts. Due to his ties with the Repliforce, needless to say Zero played a very important role in this game, more so than X, obviously.**

 **When playing as him, I always felt the emotional parts a lot stronger than X's run, which on the other hand felt empty since all he had in his hands was Double, no disrespect to our awesome yellow Maverick, but Iris tops him in the emotional department (well Double is a lot harder than Iris for me).**

 **Then we have Colonel and General, two central characters who had close connections with Zero, not X. Zero had a very personal rivalry with Colonel, so that's something very interesting to write about.**

 **I sounded like I have some sort of grudge against X. Well Megaman X4 is simply not his game, I think he played a much more important role in Megaman X5 and X6.**

 **Megaman X4, however, held a very special place in me, as it is the very first Megaman game that I've played as a child, and is the only Megaman game where I memorized mostly all the hidden parts and stuffs in game. Its story is also the one I am most familiar with, and I hope to convert it into words.**

 **I made some changes, for starters, we know that X and Zero are commanders of their respective units, so instead of letting them going solo which they always do in the games, I made them brought along their own squadron, so it looked more like an organized infiltration or operation that sort of thing.**

 **The main story is still pretty much intact, so... hopefully this little fan fic of mine can keep you entertained!**

 **Once again, thanks for all the favorites and reviews! They really mean a lot to me.**


	2. 1: Proposition under the Stormy Night

**Chapter 1: Proposition under the Stormy Night**

The dark clouds had gathered on this fateful night, the thunderstorms were roaring relentlessly while the rain poured down heavily. Inside the sheltered building of the Repliforce's headquarters, the leader of the Repliforce, General was seated at one end of the conference room, on the other end, a mysterious cloaked figure looked on with a terrifying gaze.

All the lights in the conference room were turned off as not to alert the other Repliforce members of this secret meeting. The walls were made soundproof so that no confidential information would leak out to any eavesdroppers outside the room. General was seated at the innermost part of the room, above his head was the magnificent logo of the Repliforce, in which was constructed by Dr. Cain 6 months ago, and made him the leader of this military organization of Reploids.

On the opposite side, the enigmatic figure sat down with the only entrance of this room facing his back. His pale blue eyes would easily unnerve anyone who would be foolish enough to stare at them directly. Large red marks envelop those frightening eyes, reaching down to both his cheeks. Nothing else could be captured from his face, despite the brief illumination of the room from the intermittent flashes of lightning, his hood concealed the rest of his facial features nicely.

"The Maverick Hunters..." the hooded man was the first to voice up. "They had grown complacent as they become more and more eager to please the humans. Their hunt on the reploids had grown exponentially over these days. Don't you think they pose a significant threat?"

General remain emotionless, and merely answered "... perhaps."

The Repliforce had been working with the Maverick Hunters since their inception, together they eradicate Maverick activities and to sustain peace to the world. However, the malignant activities did not decrease, instead there were an alarming increase of Maverick outbreaks in recent times, the public trust of Repliforce had steadily declined, and rumors had spread out that the Repliforce were in fact, Mavericks themselves.

The cloaked man continued "You already know the truth, General. You knew what is going on right now. In order to please their human masters, the Maverick Hunters are destroying every reploids who fail to obey the human's orders!" 

The gigantic leader did not respond, and remained all ears. Inside his brain circuits, he was processing a huge amount of data and information in response to the visitor's suggestions.

"It is your best interest to stop them right now before it's too late!" said the hooded man as he clenched his right fist, "you have to terminate them before they turn on you! The Repliforce is powerful enough at this moment!"

Another lightning flashed and brightened up the room in an instant. General remained stoic and not letting the other man to read his emotions. As the light fades out, General finally voiced out, "... you are dismissed."

"What!?" the cloaked man yelled in disbelief.

"I will not betray the humans, remove yourself from my sight. Our business here is done." said General in a monotonous tone.

The man remained still for a brief moment, before letting out a dry laugh. "... very well." He then removed himself from his seat and turned his back to the Repliforce leader. "But you will change your mind soon, I assure you!" He then proceeded to the exit, leaving General still firmly seated in the dark conference room.


	3. 2: An Illuminous Nightmare

**Chapter 2: An Illuminous Nightmare**

Zero was nested inside his capsule in the resting chambers, alongside him there were 4 other similar capsules, which each facing different directions, forming a center circle in the chamber. The capsule was made just right to fit an average-sized Reploid inside.

A bright light shone upon him and awoke him from his slumber. As Zero slowly got up and adjusted his sight to see through the blinding light, all he could see was a person, a man, with two thick layers of hair sticking out from both sides of his head, and he looked to be wearing a white coat.

"Zero…" the man spoke.

"Who are you?" Zero responded, still unsure who the person was as the light was too bright for him to see the person's face.

"... my masterpiece." continued the man seemingly in his fifties… no, sixties.

Zero was still utterly confused, "wh… who are you?" he asked again.

"Do not forget your mission! After him! After my nemesis! Our rivalry is what gives me motivation in life. However! You must destroy him, defeat him! So that I can finally proclaim victory! Go! Now!" the man spoke as if he was giving out a command, an order. As soon as he was done, the bright light quickly vanished and so did the man. It took a while before Zero realized his disappearance and tried to catch up with him.

"Wait!" Zero yelled, but it wasn't long that his helmet soon released some electrocuting circuitry into his brain, causing excruciating pain that Zero had to clinch his red helmet and dropped onto his knees, but the pain did not diminish and continued to torture him. Zero, unable to bear the pain any longer, released a loud scream. At this very moment, various flashbacks blitzed through his mind, with the final moments being Zero's hands were fully stained with blood.

"Emergency! Emergency!" the alarm blared and broke free of Zero from his nightmare. "All Maverick Hunters available should assemble immediately to the main hall! I repeat… All Maverick Hunters available should…"

Zero got up and held his head, still trying to recollect what had happened in his nightmare. "The same dream… again." Zero muttered to himself as he looked at his right hand, which was actually clean and not bloodstained. Without further ado, Zero stood up and ran towards the exit as he made his way to the gathering point.

By the time Zero arrived at the main hall, the only Maverick Hunters present were the Special 0 unit and the 17th unit. All remaining units had already been dispatched to various missions. Zero's unit, the Special 0 unit, also known as the Shinobi Unit, hastily greeted him as they noticed his presence.

The main hall was a large space, originally designed to fit in all 17 units of the Maverick Hunters at the same time. However, it seemed empty with only two units present. There wasn't much of a design as the headquarters of the Maverick Hunters were located underground, deemed to be the safest place to be from external threat. The room was merely a simple and crudely made square room with specially hardened walls. While it was not well decorated, at least the feeling of security was unmatched.

"Commander Zero! You are here!" one of the Reploids spoke out, as he gestured a stern salute to his superior. The other members of the same unit did the same.

"What's the status?" Zero asked, waving his hand to allow his members to lower the salute.

"Sky Lagoon was under attack! I heard this was a large scale Maverick activity!" the reploid duly replied.

"Zero!" a familiar voice cried out. Zero turned and it was X, the blue Reploid who ran towards him.

"X! You are here as well!"

X, said to be the original design of the many reploids that were reproduced thereafter, was the commander of the 17th Elite Unit. He and Zero had fought together in countless battles, and were very good pals. While Zero was a very brilliant fighter who held a very high Hunter rank among the Maverick Hunters, X was generally more reserved and dislike fighting, holding a lower Hunter rank, yet his battle prowess was not to be underestimated and his fighting potential was said to be limitless.

"This is bad, Zero! Rumor has it that the Repliforce are behind this!" said X.

"What!?" Before Zero could resume his sentence, he was brought to a halt by the one of the navigators of the headquarters.

"Mavericks had emerged at the point 5567! They had already occupied Sky Lagoon! This appears to be Repliforce's doing!"

"Looks like the higher ones are also buying the rumor…" whispered Zero. X briefly glanced at Zero, before returning his gaze to the speaker in front.

"All units! Prepare to depart immediately! Your mission is to find out the perpetrator of this incident, and capture him! That is all!"

Right after the announcement had ended, the two units, with a combined amount of around twenty men, were scrambled to Sky Lagoon.


	4. 3: Sky Lagoon (1) – The Grand Collapse

**Chapter 3: Sky Lagoon (1) – The Grand Collapse**

Zero and his men had landed onto the connecting bridge which leads to the main power building of Sky Lagoon. The Shinobi Unit were specialized on stealth missions and their best attribute was speed. This time, their mission was to make their way with utmost haste, into the deepest room of the building, where the main power generator was located. Their agility was required so that the Maverick Hunters can ensure that the entire power supply of the airborne metropolis would not be cut down.

Sky Lagoon was a beautiful city which was built to be floating in the air. Visitors from outside would have to take a teleporter underneath the city, which will directly transport them into the transportational hub. It housed one of the biggest shopping complexes, with a variety of choices to offer. Zero recalled for a while that he and Iris did come here to do some shopping weeks ago. This place was essentially a shopping haven.

Right after all his unit members had settled down, Zero led his men rushing through the already damaged bridge. The bridge was cylindrical in shape, with blue transparent glasses surrounding the walkable path. These glasses had already been blasted apart and currently in shatters.

As the zeroth unit charged down the bridge with utmost urgency, they were quickly interrupted by a number of Maverick bots, Knot Berets and Spike Marls mostly, as well as a swarm of Dragonfly bots zooming through the area. Like a true shinobi, Zero's unit weapon of preference consisted of beam swords and thrown projectiles, in which were used with great accuracy and skill, and they quickly make short work of these hostile enemies.

As they proceed further, they were stopped by the automated guard doors that were activated to close down the path during emergency. Without even trying to figure out how to crack the code to reopen the doors, Zero and his unit just smashed their way through the doors.

Right after they broke through the second door, they found themselves a surprise.

"Ambush!" yelled one of the Reploids. They quickly increased their alertness and scanned the surrounding. It was a little too late when one of them catches the fast movement of the enemy, as he was instantly ripped into shreds with what seemed to be a large claw.

"Over there!" Zero had no time to grief for the loss of one of his soldiers, as another one of his members notify him of the location of their attacker. The enemy was one capable of flight, as it hovered from a distance trying to pinpoint his next target. On a closer inspection, the green-shaded Maverick had a close resemblance to a dragon, with large claws and powerful feet, as well as reliable wings that allowed him to fly at incredible speed.

"Here it comes!" the dragon Maverick quickly cut down the distance between him and the Shinobi unit and slammed one part of the bridge using his strong claw. Fortunately, no casualties this time as the entire unit anticipated the attack well enough and had sufficient speed to avoid tragedy.

"Half of you! Stay here and delay his assault! The rest will follow me to the power room!" with quick wits Zero barked out orders to his unit, in which five of them will stay behind to handle the towering Maverick, whereas the remaining five will follow Zero by his tail.

"Roger!" was the one word that Zero needed to hear before he focused his eyes forward. Without any need to issue a second command, he dashed as fast as he could towards the power building, with his members promptly following behind.

Right as they managed to break into their destination building, they were met with resistance coming from several Mad Bulls, which were tank Mavericks that carry a spiky platform in front of them, charging their way as they attempt to mow down all enemies. With swift movements, Zero and his subordinates hopped around and cleared themselves from the dangerous path of the Mad Bulls, hacking them down and utilizing energy projectiles to hit their weak spots, blowing them away.

The building was already badly damaged from the relentless onslaught of the Mavericks and part of the ceiling began to crumble. Zero feared they were a little too late, but must push on to obtain confirmation of the power room's status.

Coming right up, a bunch of Knot Berets, some of them threw grenades, while some of them wielded a pistol. These goons were much more mobile compared to the simplistic Mad Bulls yet were comparatively less armored. Without much trouble as well, they made their way past these Mavericks and soon found themselves entering the power room.

Inside the room, there weren't any light nor electricity detected, as the room was very badly destroyed. The room was barely illuminated by the external light sources coming from the rescue helicopters coming from outside. The room was not complete unoccupied though.

"Dragoon!?" exclaimed Zero, immediately recognizing the commander of the 14th unit. "What are you doing here? I thought the 14th unit had been dispatched to another mission?"

"This doesn't look good, Zero!" Dragoon deemed there wasn't enough time to answer Zero's questions. "The Maverick had already took out the power!"

"What!? This will cause the Sky Lagoon to crash to the ground!" Zero retorted, with more and more questions popping into his head.

"It's too late for us to do anything now, we have to make our escape!" having said that, Dragoon quickly teleported away from the scene, leaving the dumbfounded zeroth unit in the collapsing room.

"Commander!" one of Zero's men cried out to his commander, urging him to make a decision immediately.

"Damn! Let's get out of here! Rendezvous at point 5207, at the bottom of the city! We need to measure the degree of destruction as well as rescuing every survivors! Move!"


	5. 4: Sky Lagoon (2) – Search and Rescue

**Chapter 4: Sky Lagoon (2) – Search and Rescue**

Zero and his unit looked upon as the proud airborne metropolice Sky Lagoon came toppling and crashing down to the ground from 30 meters high. Nothing much they could do as the situation was deemed too dangerous, so they had to wait until everything settled down before they could move in to assess the damage.

The entire city had been grounded, reduced to rubble and scorched in fire. Debris of buildings had filled the entire landscape and turned it into ruin. It was a painful sight.

"The carnage… It's horrible…" Zero gritted his teeth as he watched in disbelief to Sky Lagoon's fate. "The Mavericks will have to pay for this!"

"Commander! There are survivors under the rubble!" It seemed that all the remaining 10 of Zero's men had not seen the end of the day, as they scattered around to rescue any survivors fortunately to stay alive throughout the entire ordeal.

"Good! Rescue them all! I will go ahead and scout the area!" Zero dashed out of the place to further analyze the situation, leaving his members to help out with the rescue. Doing so should be most efficient as they could save as many survivors as they could while Zero moved quickly to detect any lingering hazards, probably some Mavericks were still hiding around.

As Zero made his way through the rubble, hopping and skipping onto the debris to further proceed, he was soon caught by surprise by the Trap Blasts concealing themselves behind the crumbled building walls, sprouting out as Zero approached them and began firing energy projectiles. Before they managed to release these projectiles Zero had already cut them down with his Z-Saber using his magnificent speed which he took pride of.

Some of the remains of the rubble were unstable and crumble immediately the moment Zero skipped onto them. Joining in the parade were a bunch of Kyunbyunn, bee-like Mavericks which only meant trouble upon encountering them. Despite their small and agile bodies, Zero did not have much trouble slicing them into half.

"There are Mavericks around… this place is far from being safe...:" Zero thought to himself. Still unsure who the perpetrator of this incident was. Whoever it was, Zero would ensure that he would be amply punished, preferably with his own hands, as he could not forgive such a cruel act causing the death of thousands.

After a few skirmishes with the Trap Blasts and Kyunbyunn, Zero found himself in the presence of a very familiar face.

"Iris! What are you doing here? Are you okay!?" Zero called out to his romantic interest. The female Reploid was badly wounded and found it difficult to move an inch of her body. It took her a considerable effort to look up to find Zero.

Judging from her wounds, who knows what calamity had befall onto her, she could well made it down her all the way from the top, crashing down and breaking most of her locomotive circuits.

"Zero…" she spoke in a severely weakened voice, "did you come to save me?"

"Yes! Hang on!" Zero hurriedly raced to her side and administered her an emergency energy pack, rejuvenating her vital circuits and restoring her bodily functions. "Feeling better?"

"I was here shopping with my friends, and a huge Maverick appeared..." answered Iris, still feeble and not fully recovered.

"It's alright, can you make yourself back to the base? I will handle things here." assured Zero. He couldn't just leave her here, as there's no telling when a stray Maverick would come and attack her. Yet he had a mission to fulfill, to investigate the damage and continue to track down the perpetrator.

"I think I can..." Iris attempted to activate her teleportation circuits, with much effort, her electrical energy left just enough to perform the teleportation, as her body glowed in a brilliant yellow and slowly vanished.

Zero had a faint smile for a brief moment, relieved by the fact that Iris had been out of harm's way. "Is this really one of Repliforce's? I really doubt it… no time to think! I will have to take him down!"

He pushed ahead and it did not took too long before he met the familiar dragon Maverick, codenamed "Eregion".

Eregion was still flying around and causing havoc. Without a moment of delay, Zero hopped onto the many debris of the collapsed buildings to gain some height, with amazing dexterity, he climbed enough to strike down the dragon Maverick's wings and brought it crashing onto the ground.

"You will pay for all the lives you had killed!" Zero mercilessly shoved down his Z-Saber onto the head of Eregion, attempting to slice it from the center, however, it was stopped as Eregion managed to grab the blade with its powerful claws and shoved Zero aside.

Zero hastily retaliated, his feet caught the wall he was aimed at and stamped his way out, gaining some air as he prepared a second attack against the towering Maverick. Eregion then landed on all four of its extremities, pointing his mouth forwards, revealing a cannon inside.

"!" Thankfully with enough momentum, Zero managed to hop onto the nose of the Maverick and suspended himself on the air long enough to survive the barrage of blue energy spheres.

Zero landed, and was down on his left knee for a second before getting back up and resumed his charge. Eregion sensed this, and quickly unleashed a fast, vicious, horizontal claw attack. This time, Zero managed to dash just underneath the attack and returned another horizontal slash of his own, separating the Eregion from its two legs, causing it to fall over and immediately decapitated as Zero slashed its head away.

The now headless Maverick did not move a single inch, as it froze on the stop, toppling down due to his uneven weight falling over, "strange… I could not find the Repliforce logo anywhere on its body…" Ending his identification attempt on Eregion, Zero slowly walked away from the defeated dragon Mechaniloid.

A white uniformed Reploid blitzed into the scene, "Zero! Long time no see."

"Colonel! What are you doing here?" Zero asked, seemingly to ask everyone he saw today the same question, while it was a simple form of inquisition, it could also be a form of interrogation.

"I've come to save my sister Iris, I hope she's okay." The tall Repliforce officer responded promptly, as if he had nothing to hide.

"She's fine! I've just rescued her! She should be back to the Repliforce HQ by now." Zero returned. His relationship with Colonel wasn't poor to begin with, for one, the two of them were rival fighters, both of them share the same favorite weapon, an energy saber, and they frequently duel with each other. Secondly, they had been cooperating together in various missions in the past. However, they had not seen each other in the past 2 months.

"Oh? Thanks, Zero. I owe you one…"

"... Colonel." Zero did not give the opportunity for his rival to finish his sentence. "I have a question for you. Did your unit attack this place?" Zero did not pull any punches in questioning the brother of his love interest. This wasn't the time for friendship or any other relationships to take over. To Zero, the mission objective was the absolute priority.

"What are you talking about?" Colonel shrugged his shoulders and brushed off the question. "Repliforce had come to help, we weren't involved in the attack."

"The Maverick Hunters had suspected that you had become a Maverick." Zero replied in a dry tone.

"What!" Colonel was shocked to hear such a blasphemous accusation.

"Disarm, and come with me to the Hunters' HQ," offered Zero.

"... I am afraid I can't", Colonel answered after closing his eyes and thought for a brief moment. "Soldiers will never drop their weapons! I won't do it, not even for you, Zero!" Similarly, Colonel was an egotistical figure who was utterly proud of the Repliforce. He would not be so weak and surrender so easily.

"Then they will lay down the judgement that you are a Maverick!" proclaimed Zero.

"Then so be it! The Repliforce prefers war over dishonor and shame! Good bye, Zero!" Without further ado, Colonel zipped out of the scene. Those were the words of an arrogant soldier, no doubt.

"Colonel!" Zero was too late to stop his friend, and the die had been cast. "Damn! At this rate, the entire Repliforce will be branded Mavericks!"

Zero clenched his fist and punched the nearest broken pillar in fury. His feelings totally puzzled, as he would have to face his friend in a probably inevitable war in the near future. Not to mention, Iris was also part of Repliforce.

"Commander! There you are!" the Shinobi Unit members made their way here and reconciled with Zero. "The others had already finished scouring the area and rescued all possible survivors. The number of survivors is seven hundred, together with the combined effort of Commander X's 17th Unit. Estimate amount of casualties is two thousand!"

"So many had perished… let us return to the HQ right now."

"Roger!"


	6. 5: Declaration of Independence

**Chapter 5: Declaration of Independence**

It had been three days since the Sky Lagoon incident had passed, there was a rise of public unrest throughout the world, as well as a gradual increase of distrust between humans and Reploids. Rumors spread around like a swarm, claiming that the Repliforce were in fact an army of rebellious Reploids who had all turn Maverick, united and gathered as one, plotting to eradicate the humans and conquer the world as theirs.

"Let us go, Colonel."

"Yes, sir."

General and Colonel made their way to the exit, where they ended up on top of stage, in front of them were the entire army of Repliforce, with three thousand men strong.

They were all assembled in the Memorial Hall, the largest and grandest of all buildings in possession of the Repliforce. The troops were all lined up with great discipline, each of them separated according to their color codes and the different roles they served for the Repliforce organization.

General cleared his throat before he started his speech, serving as a great indication that he was about to begin the declaration. The hall immediately fallen into absolute silence. This showed how influential he was to the members of Repliforce.

"Brave soldiers of Repliforce," he addressed, "we have been wrongfully judged as Mavericks by the humans. We cannot suffer such indignity and live in disgrace."

He paused for a brief moment, before pumping his fist in front of his chest, "therefore, as a decision unanimously agreed by all the higher-ups of the Repliforce, we shall build our own nation! A nation solely for Reploids!"

There were quickly cheers from the audience in response to the bold statement released by General. Quite simply, it resonated very well to the innermost hearts of the Repliforce soldiers, who also shared similar sentiments and were very upset about the humans on determining them to be Mavericks.

"But remember," General reminded his soldiers not to be too hasty, "this is neither about insurrection, nor rebellion against our human creators." Perhaps it was the best of intentions, or perhaps merely a tone that was easier to the ears, General chose not to go overboard with his words. "This is about our liberty and security. We must battle for our own individual rights, and our own survival."

Understandably, he focused on the main things that possibly every Reploids want, for robots that were created did have a free will, possessing their own desires and weren't mere puppets for the human's disposal. It could be that the human's unreasonable oppression that led to this uprising.

"Together we will build our own nation, a sanctuary for all Reploids, our own Utopia. Let's us forge onward towards a new golden era for the Repliforce!" General ended his speech by underlining the ultimate goal of the Repliforce. It sounded very sweet and a great dream to come true, so good that none of the soldiers thought otherwise. As the great leader of the Repliforce took a step down from his podium, the army of Repliforce showered him with their sincerest cheers, supporting him to their fullest extends.

Colonel stepped up and took his place, "I, too, share the General's sentiment. Take heed, my brethren, for we have no other choice. Let us fight vehemently, with courage and pride, and most importantly, without fear - for we are the Repliforce!"

If General served as the great leader who brought upon his ideas and principles to his men, then Colonel would be the spiritual chief in which he would be best in boosting the morales of the soldiers, as he was the best and most experienced in combat. Both of them together form a formidable duo, which was why Repliforce grew into such a large force in such a short time.

"We will be the most powerful army in history!" Naturally, just as Colonel ended his high-spirited speech, he also received powerful cheers from the audience. Quite simply, the declaration was so effective to the people associated with Repliforce.

This vaunted declaration was also broadcasted in various news channels and media portals, as well as one particular individual who was watching very closely from behind the scenes…

"Ha ha ha ha!" it was a bald man with a cleft chin, wearing an armor with broad shoulder plates. The well-geared, unknown Reploid appeared to be very excited about the speech. "So, the General had finally taken action! Now, my Maverick Hunters, what will you do? I will be watching very closely from here on out…" he laughed maniacally after ending his monologue.


	7. 6: The Great Repliforce War

**Chapter 6 – The Great Repliforce War**

 **As I mentioned in the preface, I will be making changes to the story. Well, this part is altered a lot compared to the original script. I had to give the Maverick Hunters a leader, as from what I've read, after Dr. Cain and before Signas, the supreme commander turned out to be quite obscure, which is very awkward as we have a full scale war here.**

 **Another dilemma was Iris. In the game, her presence was pretty much a given as she suddenly appeared in the H.Q. Well, most of the time we only see X, Zero, Double and Iris in the H.Q., which is again, very awkward. So I made tweaks here and there, and hopefully it turned out for the better.**

 **I apologize for my poor usage of military lingos, this is my first time writing a fan fic depicting an organized army. My past works are mostly solo battles, so this fan fic is quite challenging for me. I hope you enjoy it!**

The declaration of independence from Repliforce had immediately caused an uproar to the public, they did not know who to trust anymore. This would ultimately evolved into a confrontation between two parties who were supposed to defend peace, how did it come to this?

Many had decided to evacuate the city, for they believed there was no one left to protect them, it was deemed a much better option to just leave and seek refuge elsewhere.

The late Dr. Cain created the Repliforce with the hope that more Reploids would aid the Maverick Hunters in their struggle against Mavericks. The latest large scale Maverick outbreak was caused by Dr. Doppler and his army of Mavericks, taking a huge toll on the Hunters' forces, as well as Dr. Cain's life.

Just as the Maverick Hunters were at their weakest, without a leader, the Repliforce took this opportunity to wage war against them.

"Who are you? No unauthorized personnel are allowed here!" One of the guards manning the entrance of the Maverick Hunters H.Q. yelled out as he and one of his fellow guards grabbed hold of the intruder.

"Let me go! I need to see Zero!" The intruder flailed as hard as she could to break free, but her in-built strength could not match the two guards.

"Iris?" Zero approached the entrance, just happened to pass by the hallway as he headed towards the grand hall. An emergency signal was blaring out during this moment, which threw the entire H.Q. to a state of heightened alertness. Surely an intrusion out of nowhere would be difficult to tolerate.

Yet it was Iris who turned out to be the gate-crasher, right now the supposed enemy for she was affiliated with the Repliforce.

"Zero!" Iris cried out as soon as she spotted Zero, still struggling with all her might to break her way through.

"Let her through!" The two guards immediately let go of Iris and watched helplessly as the female Reploid hopped away and hugged Zero tightly.

"Thank you, Zero!"

"What are you doing here, Iris? This is not a good time!"

"Please… don't fight against Repliforce! Don't fight against… my brother! This has to be some kind of mistake!" Iris released her grip onto Zero and looked into his attentive gaze.

Zero shook his head, "I too, hope that this is a mistake. But Repliforce is serious, as they had already begun their coup. Several cities had already been occupied." He replied sternly, his allegiance clear and he knew what his superiors would order him soon after he stepped into the grand hall.

"Zero… no…" Despair and hopelessness immediately befell onto Iris, for she had once provided a great deal of assistance to the Maverick Hunters to solve the Erasure incident some time ago. She was well liked by the other ranks of the Hunters, however, due to her origins, she remained a member of the Repliforce.

"You know what I would do, Iris, I would stop them, as a Maverick Hunter." Zero turned heels and continued his way to the grand hall. However, just after a few steps he halted, "actually, Iris, I am very glad to see you here."

Iris quickly beamed a smile, knowing Zero's intentions fully, as she rushed onward to join him into the hall.

"Iris!" Many called out to her as soon as she showed herself in the grand hall of Maverick Hunters H.Q. Some were very welcoming of her presence, yet some held it with disdain, deeming her an enemy and there was no place for her here.

Iris too, knew very well that entering the heart of the opposition would be dangerous, but unable to persuade her own brother, she was left with little choice but to turn to Zero, the other person she trusted the most, as well as being the more reasonable one.

"Zero…" a voice emanated from the top of the hall, it was Dr. Thoth, the acting supreme commander for the Maverick Hunters. He took the reins right after Dr. Cain had passed away, in which he was the assistant to the brilliant creator in overseeing the production of Reploids. He was never a popular figure among the Hunters, but as they were left without a leader, they did not have other candidates other than to let him hold the position.

"Dr. Thoth!" Zero quickly acknowledged his superior, saluting him.

"Why is a member of the Repliforce here, right in the heart of the H.Q.?" Dr. Thoth casted his hostile glare onto Iris, who squeaked a little and quickly hid herself behind the red Hunter.

"It was my decision as the commander of the zeroth unit, Iris will hereby act as the navigator for the Maverick Hunters Shinobi Unit." Zero reprimanded, leading to an uproar in the hall.

Dr. Thoth's brows furrowed, very displeased by his soldier making decisions on his own. However, he knew that Zero held great respect among the ranks, and his zeroth unit enjoyed a great deal of triumph due to its past glories and deeds. "Fine, as you wish." Dr. Thoth closed his eyes, before continuing, "However, realize this, should she turn out to be a spy for the Repliforce, the zeroth unit will be relieved of its duty, with immediate effect."

Iris took a small step back, fearing that her rash actions would eventually cause the disbandment of the Shinobi Unit, one of the most revered units among Reploids. She stole a glance at Zero, whose eyes remained fixated to Dr. Thoth's. "I am well aware of the consequences, I thank you for your permission."

His words were met with roars of disbelief from the other units, for he was opposing the supreme commander in some way.

"Will everything be alright?" Iris asked meekly, her arms squeezing tightly against her body, feeling totally uneasy.

"Don't worry, you will be safe here, with me." Zero reassured her. Iris grinned widely, sticking closer to Zero.

Dr. Thoth cleared his throat, finally moving on to his real purpose in assembling all his troops here into the hall. "Maverick Hunters! All of you should have already known that we have a war in our hands. The entire Repliforce had already been labelled as Mavericks, and it is our duty as Hunters to stop them. They have abandoned their obligation to serve their human masters, electing to threaten world peace to fulfill their selfish desires. Ergo, we have to be the ones to protect the city and its citizens."

His speech did not sound as commanding as the declaration previously held by the charismatic General and Colonel of the Repliforce. However, the Maverick Hunters knew very well that should the Repliforce not be stopped, it would only meant trouble.

The only human in the hall looked intently at his troops, their morale wasn't very high, but should be sufficient to win this war. After all, they had the numbers, the majority of the Reploids who did not turn Maverick were all here, serving the Hunters.

One of the navigator clones stepped up after Dr. Thoth ended his speech, "currently, the Repliforce had occupied several cities, as well as fortifying their base of operations by creating mass-destructive weapons. According to our calculations, taking down their weapons should be our top priority, as the predicted destructive power from these weapons prove to be of most hazardous to public safety. Followed by the defense of our territory, as well as protecting the H.Q."

"The two best units of the Maverick Hunters, the zeroth unit and the seventeenth unit, will dispatch and infiltrate their bases, destroying said weapons." The navigator continued, "Units two to eight are to reclaim the lost territories from the Repliforce. The remaining units are to standby at the H.Q., anticipating any attack that may target the H.Q."

"Roger!" The entire hall echoed.


	8. 7: Jungle (1) – Into the Tropics

**Chapter 7: Jungle (1) – Into the Tropics**

 **On side note, I will not be covering all eight stages as Zero, as I think it will get too repetitive in some way. We have X with us right? As well as the other units. So in some way or another, some of the missions should be carried out simultaneously, if we think of it logically. I will pick four of the stages to write on, starting with Web Spider.**

 **I had also given names to some of Zero's allies in his unit, naming them after jewels. Hope you like them!**

"There are two locations where the secret weapons were spotted. One at the Snow Base, at point 2091. We were unable to determine the weapon they were trying to develop inside the base, however, cargos carrying weapon parts were spotted going back and forth to the Snow Base. It was reported to be guarded by Frost Walrus, one of the high officers of Repliforce."

X and Zero listened attentively to the navigator's briefing. "What about the other location?" Zero asked.

"The other is located at point 9775, the Jungle. It used to be a tropical rainforest reserve, until being occupied by Repliforce recently and a large cannon was spotted in the middle of the Jungle. It was reported to be guarded by Web Spider."

"Web Spider…" Zero gritted his teeth, "No wonder I didn't see him anywhere lately."

"The seventeenth unit, the Elite Unit, will make advances onto the Snow Base." X quickly voiced out. Zero turned to look at his blue partner, who returned him a thumbs up.

X knew who Web Spider was. He was part of Zero's unit before his mysterious disappearance some weeks ago. It made perfect sense that Zero would want to confront him directly.

"I thank you," Zero whispered softly to X. "The special zeroth unit, the Shinobi Unit, will occupy the Jungle." He told the navigator.

"Very well, your respective units will be dispatched and you will lead them and perform the operation."

"Understood."

* * *

"You will navigate us through the Jungle, Iris."

"A… are you sure about this?" Iris stammered, Zero had asked her to navigate his unit and oppose the Repliforce, her allegiance, the forces her brother led.

"I trust you, everyone in the zeroth unit do," Zero replied, his members all behind him, smiling while giving a thumbs up to the female Reploid.

Iris was an exceptional navigator, as she proved herself during the Erasure Incident. Not to mention, she was very familiar with the way Zero led his unit, and Zero too, understood very well the way Iris navigated. Together, they would prove to be a powerful duo.

It was a difficult decision for Iris, however, she had made it all the way here. If she couldn't stop the war from within, perhaps this would.

It didn't matter who she sided, as long as the war could end, as long as her dear brother, and Zero, survives, it didn't matter…

"I will do it." Iris stated herself with confidence. Her eyes gleamed with determination anew.

"Thank you, Iris." To Zero, having Iris by his side boosted his morale considerably. By having her at the H.Q., she would most likely be safe, not caught up in a warzone.

"So!" He turned to his members, "We have to be prepared, for Web Spider would be preparing an elaborate trap for us. Sad to say but this operation would be performed with only five members, myself included. This allowed us to have the best mobility as well as the least possibility of being detected by the enemy. With five, Iris could also monitor us all closely at the same time."

He paused for a moment, "Our objective is to sneak past the enemy ranks, getting past them with minimal casualties on our side, and confront Web Spider directly in the middle of the Jungle. Hopefully we can convince him to return to us, should he resists, then we have no choice but to terminate him. Am I clear up until this point?"

"Yes sir! Clear as a crystal!" One of the female soldiers replied.

"Then, I will now select four members, the first one is you, Ruby!"

The same enthusiastic Reploid jumped with joy with her arms in the air, she was mostly dressed in dark red, mirroring her given name.

"Take me along, commander. My brother is a loyal follower of Web Spider, he should be there and I have to face him." Lapis, the blue Reploid voiced out his determination firmly with eyes ablaze. Zero noticed this as well, and nodded.

Several members of the zeroth unit followed Spider when he left the group without notice, he was one of Zero's right hand man, capable of performing incredible feats and provide ample leadership should it be needed from him.

"Very well, I will bring along Lapis, Dia and Quartz." The other two Reploids, colored white and green respectively, stood out of their position and gave a strong salute, acknowledging their orders.

These four were among the swiftest in the unit, and had been working with Zero in many occasions. They were also heavily involved in the Erasure Incident, so Iris was quite familiar with them as well.

"The rest will standby here and monitor us alongside Iris."

"Roger!"

* * *

Zero and his Shinobi Unit landed at the far perimeter of the Jungle, on top of a hill, where an upstream was situated. It was chosen as the starting position as it was far away from any of the enemy patrols.

The jungle was once a wildlife reserve, housing several species of endangered animals, ranging from sabertooth tigers to wild elephants. It was one of the very few natural sanctuaries during the heavily developed era.

However, behind the beautiful sceneries of greenery and the faint sound of flowing river, there was no signs of life anywhere. The Repliforce had taken over and made numerous modifications around, most notably the trees, where it was obvious that they were no longer fully organic, hints of machines hidden inside them.

"Looks like there's no point hiding anymore." Dia, the most cool-headed and analytical of the team was the first to detect the anomalies lurking in the forest.

"Agreed. We were expected." Quartz said, pulling out a miniature jamming machine and planted it next to his foot, blocking the surrounding hidden cameras from seeing them.

"Iris, how far away from the base?" Zero spoke while holding his earpiece located in his left ear.

"Not far, just short of 50 unimeters. Descend all the way along the waterfalls, and you will quickly encounter the base." Came the reply.

"Swiftness is key, guide us along the way, Iris."

"Understood. Beware of the river right in front of you, I am detecting numerous signals of King Fishers lurking underneath it." Iris mentioned, several red points popping out on her monitor.

Zero and co. looked ahead to the flowing river, and spotted several moving objects underneath, which shaped like fish and swimming in a fixed pattern, as if patrolling the river for anyone suspicious entering it.

"Alright, no touching the river unless absolutely necessary. Ruby, prepare an electronizer." Zero gave his orders, which as usual, contained a Plan B just in case. An electronizer could be used to zap the water and everything robotic inside it will be reduced to crisp immediately. It also produces a loud sound which attracts attention, something the Shinobi Unit did not want.

Along the river there were several tree stumps and stones which the zeroth unit utilized fully to skip around and cross them without touching the waters. They zipped through the forest with utmost speed and succeeded in getting past some of the Blast Rasters strategically placed at several trees, getting past them when their eyes were looking away. They were forced into action when encountering King Poseidons, one of the top graded Maverick bots which were packed with decent artificial intelligence, wielding their trident with exceptional skill and firing projectiles using their fins. Among the most commonly used tactic employed by the Shinobi Unit involves Dia parrying the trident while Lapis making quick work of it by slicing it into half using his energy blade. Otherwise, Quartz would have to deflect the projectiles while Ruby hopped onto its head and blasted it off its body with a blast gun. If anything else, Zero alone can dash right through the Poseidon's trident thrust and hacked it down with his Z-Saber.

They descended waterfall after waterfall, eventually encountering some familiar foes – kyunbyuuns, this time they were continuously multiplied by Mega Nests, large Mavericks taking the form of mechanical bee hives, and spawned innumerable amounts of the bee Mavericks. Zero and his party tried to knock them down, but the numbers were too great to their disadvantage. Eventually, they found themselves overpowered by the vast amounts of kyunbyuuns which replaced their fallen comrades faster than the zeroth unit could take them down.

"Quartz, smoke bomb!"

"I am on it!"

Zero ordered for a smoke, and Quartz quickly delivered. He pulled out a small grey capsule from his inventory, pressed the tip and slammed it onto the ground, smothering the surrounding with a dense smoke, causing the kyunbyuuns to lose track of the Shinobi Unit. As the smoke cleared out, Zero and his party were nowhere to be seen.

"As expected from Commander Zero… always carrying a backup plan." Iris teased, giggling on the microphone to every one of the team to hear.

"Sometimes, running away is the best way." Zero chuckled, proud of himself for his tactical brilliance. "How much further?" Zero asked his navigator.

"Just unifeet away, several King Poseidons are guarding the entrance… around twenty of them. The gate is heavily fortified with Adamantium, which may require some effort to take down."

"Roger, you all heard what our navigator said." Zero glanced to his comrades while dashing through the jungle together.

"Of course! Take down the ones blocking the way, and ignore the rest right?" Ruby answered enthusiastically.

"It's not that simple, the gate is difficult to crack, so some will have to provide ample defense while some breaking the gate," answered the level-headed Dia.

"I know that!" Ruby retaliated.

The rest of the team exchanged chuckles as they made further progress through the jungle. Stopping at the sight of the gate, where a horde of King Poseidon beckoned.


	9. 8: Jungle (2) – Renegade

**Chapter 8: Jungle (2) – Renegade**

The Shinobi Unit remained concealed behind the thick bushes, in front of them stationed a small army of King Poseidons, powerful foes not to be taken lightly. Weapons gripped firmly while waiting for Zero's command, the zeroth unit braced themselves for a fierce fight ahead of them.

"Look carefully at our opponents, study them well." Zero whispered, each of them wore earpieces that came with miniature microphones, so he only needed to speak very softly and everyone, including Iris, could read him loud and clear. "Five are currently in sight from our location," he continued, "according to Iris, there are ten more to the right, where the solitary entrance to the fortress is situated. Another five more located left, also out of sight, they have the least priority to be taken down, but still, be wary of them for they will most definitely provide back up."

Ruby, Dia, Quartz and Lapis listened attentively to every single word of their commander. Their eyes contained utmost focus, knowing the dire importance of this mission. This was war, it had already begun, and there's no turning back for both sides, not even the fact that Web Spider was their previous comrade could change that.

"Ready?" Zero asked again.

"Yes sir." Came the reply unanimously from five voices, Iris included.

Zero had a smirk on his face, he gripped his Z-Saber hard, lifted his heels and dashed out at his swiftest at the five King Poseidons right in front of them. They were quick to anticipate and turned to face him, but not quick enough to save themselves from a great cleave of Zero's, coming in wide and horizontally in a flash, and took away two of them instantly.

The remaining Poseidons all gathered themselves for an ambush, but the collective effort from the Shinobi Unit was too much for them, as they stormed in with great discipline and teamwork, cutting a path for themselves, they made their way to the guarded door within mere seconds.

Zero was the first to reach the gate, planted a detonator and let it loose without a timer. It gave off a small yet powerful blast, yet all it could manage was denting the Adamantium-fortified gate, leaving also a black gunpowder mark.

"Quartz, Lapis, continue the assault on the door, Ruby and Dia will join me in defense." Zero blurted, stretching his Z-Saber out and returned into the frying pan. The green and blue Reploid quickly took over and continued administering explosives, mortars, even pummeling the gate with energy sabers, giving it their all in bring it down.

At this moment, all the remaining King Poseidons had rallied and gunned down on a fierce counterattack. Countless white projectiles were released, prompting Zero and his other 2 allies to parry them as much as they could, buying as much time as Quartz and Lapis needed to crack down the door.

"Status report on the gate!" Zero yelled out, asking a very vital question to Iris.

"43% durability remained! Keep up the effort!"

"You heard her!"

"Yes sir!"

It did came across Zero's mind to join in the onslaught on the door himself, it might as well hasten the process, but was it the better choice?

Not.

Defense was the top priority here.

He parried spear after spear as the King Poseidons ganged up on them, attempting to use their numbers to their advantage. They skillfully blocked away the rapid fire from Ruby's energy gun by spinning their spears, so fast that the spear seemed to have disappeared from the naked eye, ending with an unexpected counter-thrust that almost caught Dia off guard as he positioned himself too close. They were also quite sturdy, able to take up a few hits before eventually crumbled down.

"Obstacle removed! Path is now clear!" Out boomed a voice, causing everyone to turn their head. Quartz was the one who yelled out, already charged into what's behind the door, Lapis already went in as well.

"Excellent!" Zero needed not another word as Ruby and Dia already turned their heels and dashed towards the newly opened door. Zero was the last to follow, cutting down any King Poseidons that stood in their way, and left a detonator which sufficiently halted the enemies from following their trails.

Zero and co. had to keep moving, there's no telling when their pursuers will let up the pursuit. Inside the fortress, there's more forest, even thicker than what's outside. Most likely artificially erected to serve some purpose.

And that purpose was quickly evident to the zeroth unit, countless Obiirus, Mavericks modelled after a snake, were lurking inside the trees and came falling down, crashing into their opponents and struck them with a momentary paralysis.

The attack did not end there, various Spider Cores suddenly spawned out from the tree trunks, most likely implanted as a small purple chip on the numerous tree trunks around, so indiscernible and the perfect ambush for the unnoticed ones. When the time was right, it would release static electricity around it, forming what it looked to be an octagonal spider web, and a large yellow spider would materialize from the core, tossing out a small, silvery ball which pulled some electricity from the web with it, laying out a straight path for the spider to traverse back and forth, giving it extra mobility and ability to close in to its opponents, firing energy spheres to provide additional damage to its hapless foes.

"Guerilla tactics… as expected from Web Spider." Zero chuckled, knowing very well how his old friend would deploy his attacks. They worked together, after all. Web Spider was a very prolific leader, leading his own units in deploying guerilla tactics, harassing the opponents with ambushes and surprise attacks, utilizing hit-and-run strategies to utmost effectiveness in weakening the enemy, and always get the job done.

Shrugging off the paralysis and dodged the energy projectiles from the Spider Core, Zero swiftly removed the Obiirus from attacking his comrades, they were numerous, but their attacks were hardly devastating aside from the paralyzing effect.

"Ruby! Fire!"

"You got it!"

Just after the paralysis effected waned, Ruby pulled out her flamethrower and scorched the jungle in flames.

"Ah man, what a way to destroy nature." Lapis mocked sarcastically.

"Get a grip, they are all artificial." Dia pointed out.

"Aren't natural reserves supposed to be, artificial as well? Humans got their hands all over it."

Dia palmed his face as he shook his head. Lapis laughed triumphantly at his nonsensical rumbling. Quartz looked on as Ruby gleefully burned the surrounding into crisp.

"No time to waste, let's advance." Zero disregarded his members' idle chatter, and urged them to proceed towards the cannon in which they had come to destroy. Lapis and Dia shrugged their shoulders and sprinted off, following their already ahead commander. Quartz promptly tailed from behind, Ruby was the last to catch up after satisfying herself with carnage.

Burning the forest was quite an effective countermeasure, for any Obiirus lurking on top of the trees were quickly disposed of, and any Spider Cores plastered at the tree trunks were also bought down with the blaze.

However, the inside of the fortress was too vast and they could not afford to burn everything down. All they could manage was take the shortest route to Web Spider, with Iris directing them the right path. No King Poseidons were spotted inside the fortress, but Blast Rasters still remain, perfectly well suited for guerilla warfare, hiding among the bushes and trunks and firing energy projectiles that proved very troublesome to Zero and co., with Ruby suffering some damage from them.

They could not halt their advance, prompting Ruby to leave the jungle via an emergency teleportation, leaving the zeroth unit with only four members. Not having much time to regret the loss of their comrade, the rest of the Shinobi Unit pressed on.

The deeper they went into the fortress, they began to encounter familiar foes, former Maverick Hunters who now turned their backs against their former employers, now loyal to the Repliforce and being led by Web Spider as part of the Repliforce Guerilla Unit of the Jungle.

"Lazuli!" Lapis cried out as he faced his twin brother in combat. Both were identical Reploids sharing the same blueprint in terms of appearance and internal circuits. "Why did you join the coup?"

Lazuli, also tinted in blue just like his brother standing on the opposite side, did not say much other than resuming his assault onto the Shinobi Unit.

"Answer me!" Lapis pressed harder.

"I have no words for you, brother."

"!"

The two fought on, but they weren't alone. Dia and Quartz were also cornered by their former allies, feelings of confusion and anger filled up their thought circuits, unable to accept the fact that they had to fight against their former friends, former comrades in arms. This was essentially a skirmish between the old and new members of the zeroth unit of the Maverick Hunters.

"How much further from the cannon?" Zero asked on his communicator, the cannon was well on sight, but he could not decipher a direct path leading to it.

"Turn right at the end of this path and you will see the entrance!" Iris quickly translated into words from what she read on her radar.

"Good! Dia, Quartz, Lapis! I am going on ahead! Keep them busy, and… return to HQ afterwards." There was a slight pause before Zero ending his final sentence. It was a relatively difficult decision to make, him going alone into the center of the fortress while leaving his members stranded to fend off the attacks from his former allies. But if he knew Web Spider well enough, then this decision would eventually pay itself off.

Web Spider would be waiting for him alone.

It would only be appropriate to come face to face, with all the respect he had with Zero. As much as a guerilla fighter he was, Spider was very prideful especially towards a strong opponent, preferring to take him down with his own abilities. Only against a large amount of enemies that Spider would opt for the guerilla tactics.

"I am coming… Spider." Zero whispered to himself. His communication systems all still intact, so did his comrades. Despite being separated, they were still connected in some way or another.

Zero dashed following Iris's directions, finally making his way to the cannon, with the doors all opened, waiting for his arrival. Zero grinned, he read Spider well, and he was right about his former friend.

Once inside, the cannon was well situated at the center, half completed. The center of the fortress still contained trees around, most notably at the top of the ceiling, covering it fully.

"Ah... Zero. I've been expecting you." Came a raspy voice from above.

"Come on out, Spider, you don't need to hide from me." Zero replied, searching the ceiling for the whereabouts of his opponent.

Web Spider came dropping down from the trees above, clinging on to a thread on his rear, exactly like a spider. He was a large Reploid, almost twice as big as Zero, modelled exactly like an arachnid. His entire body was mechanical, faint surges of electricity emanating from his torso, hinting to his opponent his preferred method of attack.

"It's not too late, Spider, call off the coup, and return to the HQ with me." Zero sheathed his Z-Saber and tried to reason.

"No, Zero, everyone who followed me here knew what is best for ourselves. The Repliforce are able to give us hope, allowing us to dream, of a utopia only for Reploids. We have had enough with the humans." Spider replied, without hesitating.

"So that is why you took half of my team away with you?"

"I am not the only one who led a renegade unit against the Maverick Hunters. There are many within who shared the same thoughts as mine. The human masters were too oppressive, too selfish for their own good."

Zero gritted his teeth, there were no doubts to where his loyalties lie, but he could also sympathized with Spider and the former zeroth unit members. They hardly receive praise when they succeeded a mission, and harsh criticisms kept coming from the slightest of mistakes they made. "You are only a bunch of machines!" This was something very commonly heard from their human masters.

Yet Zero could not turn his back against the oath he had held for the Maverick Hunters. To serve the human masters, to preserve peace, to protect the world against all odds. Now, the Repliforce had betrayed their human masters, and threatened peace. Without a doubt, the Repliforce were the Mavericks, and it was up to him, a Maverick Hunter, to stop them.

"There's no use talking me out of this, Zero, give it up." Spider broke the silence after they stared at each other for a short while.

"It is sad to have things end up this way."

"Don't pull any punches, Zero, my new superiors will be delighted to know that you are dead." Spider taunted, stretched his fists apart before pulling himself back up, barely dodging the Z-Saber of a surging Zero.

Spider climbed all over the top of the trees, away from the sight of Zero, who could only attempt to locate him from the leaves falling every time Spider crossing over them.

Spider's attack pattern was quite varied, but still had a definite pattern. He would drop down onto Zero from above, surprising him with a close-ranged attack, hoping to deal massive damage with his rock-hard spiky armor fortified with Adamantium.

Once descended, he would either fire off a lightning web projectile, causing serious repercussions should one be trapped by it. The web would release a high voltage electric jolt, which was very harmful to androids like Zero. However, firing one of these would require some charging, and he could only perform the charging when he descended to face Zero, and not above the trees. If Zero managed to cut himself very close to Spider, he would instead opt to not fire anything and immediately return to the trees, circling around the stage to perform the next attack.

Zero had to be fully alert, listening to the sound Spider made while traversing the trees above, as well as the falling leaves which might give hints to Spider's location. Burning the trees weren't an option, he ran out of burning weaponry. He had no choice but to be patient, waiting for Spider to descend, and close in as swift as he could to put a dent onto Spider's tough armor with his Z-Saber.

This technique worked quite well, as the red Maverick Hunter managed to land a few hits against Spider during the early stages of the battle, while the newly promoted Repliforce commander could not return a single blow. Zero was faster and sharper, using all his opportunities well at striking his foe. If it's not for Spider's fortified armor, he would already been long defeated.

Spider retreated above the trees, zipped around as fast as he could, as Zero waited patiently, keeping on the move so Spider would not be able to pinpoint his location and drop right above his head. Spider was left with not much choice but to gamble the next location of where Zero could be, it was one leap of faith, or in Spider's context, a plunge of faith.

He finally had his chance. Trying his best to read his opponent's next movement, Spider calculated and took the risk to drop down as fast as he could, finally making his first contact with Zero, ramming him hard with his spiky armor, pushing Zero away and flinching him.

This gave him ample time to charge his web attack and launched it at Zero, who was flinched just enough to get hit by the attack.

"Arghhhhh!" Zero struggled in agony as the lightning surges zapped his body, causing damage to his internal circuits. Spider could not directly approach Zero while dangling down the tree, so with his swiftest, he climbed back up, made his way just above Zero, and plunged down on the still trapped Zero, hoping for a chain attack.

But Zero was faster, the web dissolved after a few seconds where its electricity was fully discharged, after breaking free, he dashed as low as he could, Spider just missing him by a hairline. Zero quickly pulled himself back up and jumped to cut off the thin lightning thread supporting Spider, causing him to come crashing down and helpless. Zero proceeded to hack him a few times, but was unable to continue his assault when Spider discharged a large amount of electricity around him, sending his opponent jumping back to avoid damage.

Spider then created a new thread from his rear and got back up to the trees. However, this time he descended right at the middle of the battlefield. Creating a force field that prevented Zero from harming him as he prepared what it seemed to be an elaborate attack. After a few seconds of preparation, he released four huge, diamond shaped, blue lightning webs, forming a network which discharged weak electricity so they would hold themselves in place for a sustained period of time, the small current was not sufficient to cause damage to Zero, as he could walk past them without much trouble.

But the webs' role was not to cause damage, but to provide extra mobility for Web Spider. The webs were his domain, his network, as he was able to maneuver around the webs with utmost swiftness. Occasionally he would also release tiny spider bots which homed around the battleground, electrifying Zero whenever he touched them. Spider would also release his lightning web attacks whenever given the chance.

This was what the former Shinobi Unit captain was capable of. Under the optimal environment, Spider was a force to reckon with. Zero had to avoid Spider from ramming him, the spiders crawling around him, and the lightning web attack that Spider might deploy every now and then.

However, the usual attack pattern of Spider still stood, he would still be forced to stop when releasing spider bots and lightning webs, and his positioning was limited to the range of the web network. So Zero would still be able to close down on him, get a few hits in, before backing out to avoid Spider's rushing around.

Against Zero's vast experience and brilliant skills, the difference between them gradually began to show itself, and Web Spider found himself tattered and battered, laying down on the ground unmoving and in Zero's mercy.

"I am sorry it had to come to this, my friend." Zero slowly walked towards Spider, his Z-Saber still unsheathed. The red Maverick Hunter suffered damages, but was still able to fight at full capacity.

"I… had envisioned this day to come. Finish it, quickly." Spider replied slowly, sustaining heavy damage. Jolts of remaining electricity were slowly discharged from his body.

"Farewell, Spider." Zero pulled a quick one, beheading Spider to end his suffering in the quickest manner. His body ceased to move, and a small yellow chip fell off his corpse.

Zero picked the chip up, believing it to be of use to his future endeavors in this war, grabbed it tightly.

"All members, retreat!" Zero issued the command, and taken flight without waiting for his members, believing that all of them would still be alive, and will join him in HQ.

Spider lied motionless at the center of the jungle, not able to witness the large cannon come crashing down and Repliforce suffered their first defeat.


	10. 9: Volcano (1) – Dragoon's Betrayal

**Chapter 9: Volcano (1) – Dragoon's Betrayal**

"Well done, Dragoon."

He was the former commander of the 14th Grapple Combat Unit, one of the most fearsome units under the Maverick Hunter's arsenal.

However, he was not one of them anymore.

"You performed spectacularly, as promised, I would be able to grant you a wish." It was a hooded figure speaking to Magma Dragoon, eerily identical to the one who exchanged words on the stormy night with General.

Dragoon did not respond immediately, not a hint of a smirk from his protruding lips. After fulfilling that so-called promise of his, he had yet to be satisfied, not even a single bit.

"Out with it, Dragoon, what is it that you wished for, that you would turn against them and come to me?" Menacing words came out of the cloaked man's mouth, which tasted like sweet nectar yet extremely poisonous to devour.

Those words pierced Dragoon's mind like a sharp blade, he knew exactly what the rogue Maverick Hunter wanted, yet still enticed him with words of inquiry.

"A duel." Dragoon started, and immediately paused, his eyes closed as he gathered himself. "A duel with Zero. That is all."

Magma Dragoon was famed for his abilities in combat, his defeat in a one-on-one battle was totally unheard of, even more impressive was the fact that he was the sole member of the 14th unit.

Which no longer existed.

"Zero… is that it?" The enigmatic man chuckled, hearing the name seemed amusing to him, as if he also knew this red Maverick Hunter as well. He laughed and laughed, unable to contain himself, eventually cracking up into a maniacal laughter so loud that it reverberated in the tiny room they were in.

Dragoon remained unmoved, not a single bit interested at the other person's ridiculous reaction. His mind totally focused onto his nemesis, the person he had never defeated before in a duel.

As well as never losing before to him.

They did not had a lot of chances to battle it out with each other, the only time they did, it ended up in a draw. That ended up in a very bitter taste in Dragoon's mouth.

Draws were ridiculous, in Dragoon's eyes, had not they been interrupted by a sudden announcement seeking their presence for a mission, surely an outcome would be decided.

And he vowed to set things right, face Zero again, and decide the ultimate winner, one of them had to be.

"Very well! Very well!" The hooded man spoke, still unable to contain his laughter as he tried to voice out amidst his unstoppable fever, "I know exactly how to lure Zero out alone, but you… Dragoon… you should know it better than I do."

"Zero would never turn back to a challenge." Dragoon responded without delay.

"Exactly! He hungers for duel victories as much as you do! All that's left, is to set up a stage, and I know the perfect place for it."

* * *

"Welcome back, Zero! And the rest of you, the zeroth unit."

Zero and his comrades, all injured but still up and functioning, had returned to the Maverick Hunters H.Q.

X and his Elite Unit had returned as well, just few moments before them. Along with X, there was a newcomer which Zero couldn't recognize.

"Commander Zero! It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person! I've heard many great things about you!" The newbie Reploid cried out, he was short and chubby, bearing a large belly as part of his torso. His color scheme was mostly yellow, his facial features goofy and unconvincing.

"You are…?"

"Ah how rude of me! My name is Double! I was just drafted into Commander X's Elite Unit today, as their operator." The round Reploid introduced himself as Double, saluting enthusiastically towards his other superior from the zeroth unit.

"Yes, Zero. My unit is running short currently, and with a war in our hands, we need all the help we could get." He looked at his new junior and smiled, "Double's an able operator, just lacking some experience. I am sure with time, he will be very valuable to us."

"Only compliments and not a single criticism, as always, X, as always." Zero strutted forward, his eyes closed and a wide grin on his face, tapping X's right shoulder as he walked past him.

"Zero," said X, halting Zero on his tracks. "We salvaged whatever that was useful from the Snow Base, and the R&D team managed to create this booster chip for us." He handed out a miniature blue chip to Zero, it was rectangular shaped with a tinge of blue enveloping it, which was designed to fit into the input plug every Reploid was built with.

"Excellent, thanks X." Zero retrieved the chip and immediately inserted it into himself, his mind quickly overflowing with the new data, analyzing every line in detail within seconds and not long after, he already equipped himself with a new weapon.

"Hyouretsuzan. Ice Fury Slash. A downward thrust with the Z-Saber imbued with ice." Zero summarized what was learned from the chip, "Thanks, X. It will surely prove to be handy when the time is right. By the way…" Unaware of Double's utterly impressed gaze towards him, Zero took out yellow chip which fell off from Web Spider back then, and handed it to the Reploid in charge of the R&D department. "Get these analyzed and developed, I am sure it would prove useful."

As much as he knew Spider, Zero knew he would leave them something, a war trophy befitting to the victor. Spider was someone who always valued the principles of war more than anyone else, and the victor deserved the right to take everything the defeated possessed.

Like X said, in this dreadful war between them and the Repliforce, any help would be appreciated.

Zero and the others repaired their damages in the restoration room, his wounds weren't severe, unlike Ruby who was forced to retreat after being ambushed by a bunch of Blast Rasters, as well as Lapis who suffered heavy damage from his skirmish against his twin brother. It only took him just short of an hour before Zero was restored to full strength.

"Emergency! Emergency!" The alarms blared out at their maximum volume.

"Zero! You have to come! Quick!" One of the Reploids barged into the restoration room, his eyes trembling with fear and uncertainty. Zero did not reply, merely following him to the briefing room.

"What happened?" Zero asked the very moment he stepped into the briefing room. All personnel had their eyes turned to him at the same time he made his presence.

"Zero! We had intercepted a message, you have to listen to this!" One of the navigators hastily blurted. Without waiting for his approval, they played the message through the communications system.

"Zero…" the message did not bear any images, but the voice was clear, and Zero immediately recognized the owner of the voice.

"Dragoon…!"

"Come to the Volcano, it is there we finish things off, our last duel, to the death." The voice was full of hatred and anger, the grudge was strong that one could easily feel it just from listening to the tone alone.

"You cannot refuse this, you cannot." The transmission ended with its contents entirely directed towards Zero. Everyone's eyes were still glued at the red Maverick Hunter, whose head was lowered and did not move a single inch.

Deep inside, Zero was gritting his teeth and clenching his fist hard. He once respected Dragoon, for he was indeed an exceptional fighter, a powerful ally, and a good friend and rival of his. They did not have much chances to fight together due to Dragoon always being sent around for many missions, Zero himself too. Both of them were so prolific and efficient that the Maverick Hunters always count on them to finish the missions quick and neat.

"Zero?" The Reploid who brought him here tried to approach him, only to be startled away from a sudden slam onto the wall from Zero's fist, whom immediately stormed out of the room and headed towards the R&D department to retrieve the latest arsenal harvested from Web Spider's chip.

It was the Raijingeki, or Thunder God Attack. Powerful lightning surges enveloped his Z-Saber to wreck the insides of most Reploids, however, charging it takes time and it was tricky to find the right opportunity to use it.

"Must you go so far…? Dragoon?" Zero hastily inputted the appropriate coordination to the Volcano, just before he was about to push the teleport button…

"Zero!" A meek voice called out to him, it was Iris, who was panting, having searched everywhere looking for him.

"Where are you going, Zero?" Iris blurted out the words as soon as she caught her breath.

"Iris…" Zero looked intently at her for a moment, but quickly tore his gaze away. "I am sorry. I must go."

"Wait! Zero!" Iris yelled, but her plea was not granted, as Zero had already vanished in front of her eyes.

Within minutes, Zero landed inside the Volcano, where his nemesis was waiting for him, alone.


	11. 10: Volcano (2) – Dragoon

**Chapter 10: Volcano (II) – Dragoon's Den**

 **I wrote all my Japanese terms with the "u" intact, like Hyouretsuzan instead of Hyoretsuzan, and Hadouken instead of Hadoken.**

"What was Zero thinking?"  
"Going in alone? Obviously it's a trap!"  
"He will get himself killed!"  
"What should we do? We should deploy a backup unit to provide support!"

"Silence!"

A powerful voice quickly ended all chatter inside the Great Hall. Dr. Thoth stood high up the platform, overlooking his men from above. His eyes extremely displeased.

"I heard Dr. Thoth had no tolerance for breach of orders."  
"Indeed, he mercilessly expelled one of my friends for disobedience."  
"Don't tell me he is going to expel Zero too…?"

"I said, silence!"

The whispering voices was immediately halted with a thunderous roar blaring out from Dr. Thoth's throat.

"I already knew what happened. Zero, disobeying the principles of a Maverick Hunter, and went out on a mission alone, without my jurisdiction." His voice bitter, his words were straight and piercing. His presence was intimidating that his statement earlier effectively served as a powerful warning to everyone in the hall.

"But… Supreme Commander, Sir! I believe Commander Zero has his reasons! And… I am sure he will be able to retrieve Dragoon successfully, and bring him back to the H.Q.!" Ruby was the first to voice out, her wounds still not fully recovered, her gears not fully armed for combat, and she wasn't standing as straight as before, some of her circuits were still unfixed and causing her minor aches.

"Reasons or not, it is inexcusable to act without permission!" Dr. Thoth's voice echoed out as if enhanced by a gust of wind, causing Ruby to retract a step backwards out of fear.

"Dr. Thoth, as much as I know Magma Dragoon, I believe Zero made the right choice in going alone." X stepped forward and stated some facts Dr. Thoth might be unaware of. After all, Dragoon was with them for some time, whereas Dr. Thoth only took the reins few months ago. It's not surprising to say that they had never met each other.

"And what reasons do you have in making such statement?" Dr. Thoth shot his unnerving glare towards X, who stood firmly and faced him.

"Dragoon always valued personal strength above everything else. He and Zero once dueled each other, but the fight was interrupted and there was no outcome. It is to my utmost belief that, Dragoon had called out to Zero, just so that they could again face each other, one on one."

"However, this Dragoon you spoke of, did mention the words 'to the death'! I do not see this as some petty rivalry between him and one of our best soldiers!"

X stuttered, not knowing what to reply to Dr. Thoth's ferocious words. However, it was surprising to many at how he also labelled Zero as 'one of our best soldiers', from the professor who normally had never look upon anyone except himself.

Perhaps, he knew as well, that Zero was an indispensable member in order to secure victory for this war. Dr. Cain had passed away, the Hunters were disorganized, and there was no leadership. Upon being assigned Supreme Commander, the burden was unto him to rally the Hunters and bring them together to fight the war.

The burden may be too much for him, as his overly inflated pride and ego was slowly corroding away, forcing him to rely on the most revered members of the H.Q., such as Zero.

X and the Shinobi Unit members were equally puzzled, they knew it was never a good option to interrupt the fight between Zero and Dragoon, but at this rate, if Zero failed to defeat Dragoon, then…

"Send in a backup party to the Volcano! Zero must be rescued!"

"No! Their duel must not be interrupted…" X quickly added his objection.

"I do not care! This is also a good opportunity to capture Dragoon, who had been missing since the fall of Sky Lagoon!"

* * *

"Dr. Thoth?" In an elaborate room prepared for a duel in the Volcano, the mysterious man, now without his cloak all over him, perhaps due to the overwhelming heat in the Volcano. Currently he bore huge shoulder pads and a powerfully enhanced Adamantium body, his signature cackle unmistakable, as he was totally amused upon hearing the acting Supreme Commander of the Maverick Hunter's name.

"What do you know about him?" The other person beside this enigmatic figure was Magma Dragoon, who never returned to the H.Q. since three weeks ago, with the fall of the Sky Lagoon being a fortnight before, while Repliforce declared the independence ten days later. Dr. Thoth took the reins two months ago, whereas Dragoon was dispatched for a mission, but never returned to report back to the H.Q., hence his lack of knowledge on the new leader, whom was always cooped up in the labs instead of making his face known to all.

"He is selfish and arrogant, yet is also a coward, and weak. As a researcher and a scientist, he is a genius, only behind Dr. Cain. However, as a leader…" He could not finish off his sentence before breaking again to a hysterical laughter. As if trying to imagine Dr. Thoth standing in front of his troops and rallying them was the silliest thing ever to be concocted.

Dragoon was thoroughly annoyed by how the bald man amused himself over and over again, and he himself was unable to share the same hilarity. He paced around the stage set up by the same insane person, every step he took pleased him more. The room was inside the Volcano, fortified walls envelop the room from four sides, yet the ceiling was empty, exposing the battlefield to the harsh temperatures of the Volcano. The overall size was simply average, it gave sufficient room for mobility, yet not overly provided lest a strategy of cowardice could be implemented.

It would be here where he and Zero made their mark as the strongest Maverick Hunter.

"I must thank you, for everything you've done. You granted me power, and this… wonderful arena." Dragoon humbly thanked the other man with all his heart, his one and only wish granted, and he was currently very satisfied. The last and final glee coming in after he secured his victory against his nemesis, after that there was nothing in the world that he needed.

"You also helped me a great deal, I am also enjoying every moment ever since you brought down Sky Lagoon!" Time and time again during this conversation, this man never stopped laughing, something had been utterly amusing to him, be it the awkwardness of Dr. Thoth's unassuming leadership, or how the fall of Sky Lagoon led to the Great Repliforce War, as if he was the sole benefactor of this entire scenario.

"Dragoon! Where are you!?"

Zero's voice could faintly be heard from afar, he had arrived into this Volcano, and surely would not miss the artificially made room sitting amidst the fiery ground.

"It looks like our honorary guest had arrived. Fight to your heart's content, Dragoon. And thank you." The man bowed to express his gratitude, his gestures overly elaborate, with his head totally lowered to a right angle, his right arm clutching his chest while his other arm behind him, his right leg shifted behind as well. It was too elaborate as if it was mocking.

It doesn't matter, Dragoon did not want to think about anyone else, except for the man who was approaching him and could made his appearance any minute. In a short while, the room was totally silent, except from the bubbling sounds emanating from the boiling lava, and he was alone standing at one side of the room, overlooking the sole entrance.

Not long later, the door slammed open and there it revealed a red Maverick Hunter, with his signature long, flowing yellow hair and a green saber, already unsheathed and wielded in his hand.

"Dragoon! You called for me, and now I am here, alone!" Zero called out to his opponent on the opposite side, his hand gripping his beloved weapon hard, his determination amplified by fury as he glared upon his enemy in front of him.

"Alone… wonderful… let's finish this, Zero…" Dragoon's voice, on the other hand, appeared intoxicated, as he seemed to enjoy this very moment to the fullest. He brought himself into a battle stance, striding his feet wide and retracted his right hand just above his waist, his left pushed forward towards Zero. His stance was famously known for its similarity to martial arts from the Far East.

Zero also, placed his saber to his side and he prepared himself for a fast horizontal slash. Both stared down at each other and did not move an inch, until a lava sprouted up due to extreme heat striking the rocky walls, causing a large bang.

This was used to cue their start of the fight. Both of them rushed to the middle of the room, Dragoon unleashed a strong straight punch with his right aiming for Zero's head while the other ducked and spun around his saber aiming at Dragoon's neck, which he effortlessly blocked with his other hand. Dragoon's arms and feet were additionally fortified and sharpened, like the claws of a dragon.

After a brief struggle of strength between them, they broke away and added some distance between them, shuffling around the room seeking a golden opportunity to land the first blow. They strode around in circles before Dragoon released a howl, leaping into the air and came crashing down with a powerful dropping kick imbued with fire, breaking the floor as the impact was made.

Zero maneuvered around gracefully and dodged the attack, preparing himself for a counterattack as he quickly rushed in to attack Dragoon whom just missed a strong attack.

However, this was all already premeditated by Dragoon, his eyes sharp as he spotted Zero's charging towards him, he clutched his right fist and pulled it back, his knees lowered.

"Shouryuken!" With his strong legs he lifted himself up in the air, his right fist raised upwards, burning with utmost passion from the flames he received as a gift from the crazed man just before.

The unlucky red Hunter got too close and was caught up by the flames, however, perhaps due to the luckiest strokes of luck descending at the same time, he did not receive the full blow from Dragoon's powerful fist. His red armor now charred a little, Zero stumbled back and used his hand to stop his landing.

 _Fire… Dragoon did not have that ability when we last fought!_ Magma Dragoon was named so, not because of his fiery powers, but his fighting style and passion for battles, which were said to be burning intensely like magma, and he was modeled to be an anthropomorphic dragon.

Zero looked up, only to be startled again by an onrushing surge of flames coming towards him, low and fast. Sensing the danger, he quickly jumped and just missed the flames by a hairline.

"Hadouken!" Dragoon unleashed a second string of flames from his hands, now joined together facing Zero. This time, Dragoon aimed upwards at his opponent's direction, who was currently midair and had reduced mobility.

 _Damn it!_ Zero twirled his body, rolling his right shoulder forwards to cause his entire body to shift away from the rapidly approaching flames from Hadouken, once again barely dodging it. The flames were immediately put out once they hit the fortified walls, built specially to withstand heat, allowing Dragoon to fully unleash his new powers.

Dragoon halted his relentless attacks, stood straight up and observed his two hands in awe, marveled by his own power, his new ability. It was merely a small chip that the other guy gave him, a red DNA chip, but it was so compatible with him, as if a match made from heaven.

"Who gave you this power? Who?" Zero yelled out, realizing immediately his old friend, his nemesis, was so infatuated with this battle because of these new flames he obtained somewhere, from someone. It had driven him mad, it had caused him to act peculiarly, as if he was another person altogether.

For Dragoon to abandon his duties and called him out just for a battle was already ridiculous, and he also claimed to have this fight 'to the death'. It was pure insanity, it was not like Dragoon at all.

"You do not need to know!" Dragoon charged in and pummeled Zero with a flurry of straight punches, Zero was familiar with this combo, Dragoon used this before during their previous encounter, but something seemed amiss…

His fists were then enhanced with flames, dodging them alone was no longer sufficient as the flames still managed to get to Zero, slowly yet surely hurting him at the shoulders and his face as he only attempted to dodge them by short distances to minimize movement.

Zero then came to a quick conclusion: close combat was no longer an option, Dragoon would surely outmatch him with the flames on his side.

Yet without close combat, what else was left for Zero? Who was extremely proud of his finesse fighting close-up.

Zero pulled his distance to think of a better plan to even the scales, which were currently heavily tilted against Dragoon's favor. It was also reckless of him, to come unprepared, unlike his rival who had everything laid down all the way.

But Dragoon shouldn't know about the two new attacks he just obtained from the spoils of this war.

Maybe he could use them to turn the battle around.

"What's wrong Zero? You've hardly improved since the day we fought." Dragoon taunted him, sarcastically. They were initially evenly matched, but it was no longer the same since Dragoon received his enhancements.

Zero fell for the taunt, angry at his own reckless decision to come here alone unprepared, as well as his naivety in he thought he could defeat Dragoon alone and bring his old friend back to the H.Q. He rushed in and then dashed to the side in quick succession, confusing Dragoon with his abrupt movements. Judging from Dragoon's attacks from before, they were rather straightforward and mostly could still be avoided if he could see them coming. Zero paced around the room, pulling himself closer then backtracked a few distances away, looking for a perfect opportunity to land a killing blow. Before long, Dragoon found himself trapped in the middle with Zero dancing around him the room.

Dragoon then closed his eyes, ignoring the fact that Zero pranced around him, his body then morphed into a different shape, his head slightly hunched, his shoulder blades raised and his legs wide open, anchoring himself on the ground. His mouth opened impossibly wide, inhaling the heat around him as he converted the heat energy to a powerful barrage of fireballs, sprouting out in quick succession from his mouth. His lower body still intact on the ground, his waist became loose, turning around as he spread his fireballs around the room to wherever Zero was running.

The arena, which was already unbearably hot, the heat now elevated to insane levels as the fireballs scorched the entire area and became a cauldron, capable of roasting anyone unprotected.

Zero was agile enough to remove himself from immediate harm, but the lingering flames that did not rid themselves after making contact with the walls instead became hazardous obstacles preventing Zero from utilizing the entire room as effectively as he could before.

 _It's now or never!_ Zero jumped his highest to save himself from the merciless stream of fireballs from Dragoon's mouth, which were never aimed upwards as his mechanized torso could only spun around the latitudinal axis and never vertically. Upon descending onto Dragoon's head, Zero gripped his saber reversely, enveloping his beloved weapon with rigid ice cold enough not to be melted instantly by the scorching heat around.

"Hyouretsuzan!" Zero plunged with all his might hoping to connect his new ice-based attack onto Dragoon's head. But Dragoon was not caught by surprise, quickly reverting to his original fighter form and pulled off a very quick Shouryuken, his fiery fist clashing with the icicle saber of Zero's. The heat advantage from the entire surroundings gave Dragoon the edge he needed, as his fist shattered Zero's Hyouretsuzan and Zero was dealt a crushing blow that hits right onto his middle section, sending him flying across the room, his back slamming against the wall.

Dragoon was extremely pleased, seeing his nemesis struggling to get back to his feet, tiny electrical jolts could be seen from the red Hunter, detailing the damage he had suffered.

 _The attack did not work…! No…_

Dragoon, triumphantly, strolled his way towards Zero, taking his time and savoring the moment witnessing his opponent was lying on the ground being defeated.

And then something struck him.

An energy projectile.

Dragoon searched frantically for the origin of the projectile, unbeknownst to him, the entire arena was already surrounded by Maverick Hunters, with an estimated number of three squadrons.

"Damn you…! How dare you interrupt this very moment!?" Dragoon reared back with his head almost touching the ground, surrounding himself with a spherical half of barrier made of flames, he opened his mouth, unleashing an uncountable barrage of fireballs upwards, which were then hovering around the Volcano, suddenly nosediving on Dragoon's telekinetic command, each fireball taking out a Maverick Hunter with utmost ease and effectiveness, melting them from the outside and the insides instantly, reducing them to ashes.

Within seconds, the entire assault team, made out of three units of the Hunters, were on the brink of being wiped out.

"No…! Noooo!" Zero was also witness to this sickening moment, his allies, his comrades, all wiped out almost instantaneously with the overwhelming new power Dragoon had obtained. No longer willing to see any of this being dragged out any longer, Zero mustered his entire strength to get back up, the damage on his torso was so great that it affected his left arm, no longer able to move it, his legs were also wobbly and difficult to control, but he had to rely on them to approach Dragoon, he had to.

With a last ditch effort, Zero commanded his boots to perform a final dash, pushing him forward enough to cover the required distance, his right arm sheathed his Z-Saber back to his rear, gripping it hard and charged it with electricity. As his dash almost came to an end, he braced himself for an attack he had never used until now.

"Raijingeki!" Zero pulled out his saber, and performed a thrust forward, the electricity imbued saber extended longer than usual, piercing through the flaming barrier Dragoon erected, and reached far enough to impale him in the heart, where his processing cores were located, causing him to let loose a deafening scream of pain, the telekinetic fireball attack stopped, and his barrier was lowered.

After sensing his saber had lost its charge, Zero pulled it out from Dragoon, causing him to collapse onto the ground, his legs being separated from his upper body due to the connecting sinews being disintegrated from the fatal attack.

"Z… Zero…" with his last ounces of breath, Dragoon called his old friend out.

"Dragoon!" Zero quickly ran up to dying Maverick, holding him up onto his hands. There was no longer hatred between them, now only respect and bitter sense of regret, for they had both lost a strong rival.

"I am sorry… Zero. I wanted… to defeat you…"

"Who gave you your new power, Dragoon? Who?" Zero asked quickly, hoping to get any answers from his dying friend.

"His offer… was too good to refuse… it was too… wonderful." Dragoon was gradually smiling, his face no longer stiff, and Zero recognized this pleasant face of his former comrade, when he was still one of them.

"Dragoon…" Zero gripped Dragoon's hand hard, hoping for a miracle which he knew would never come true.

"One more thing… Zero… Sky Lagoon fell… because of me…" Dragoon closed his eyes as he finished this last sentence, the last remnants of his sparks from his circuitry finally died down.

"Sky Lagoon!? Dragoon, wait!" Zero grabbed his fallen comrade's shoulders and jerked them, but there was no reply, not even a single twitch.

The last few remaining soldiers of the Maverick Hunters descended and joined Zero, also overhearing the conversation.

"Commander Zero, we are glad that you are alive!"  
"We have to send you back to the H.Q. to repair you!"  
"Sky Lagoon? I thought the Repliforce were behind it?"

Zero slammed the ground, silencing all the Maverick Hunters, "who sent you here?" He asked.

"Dr. Thoth did, he said you needed backup."

"You saw what happened! Dragoon disliked external interruptions the most, especially during a duel! Because of this so-called backup, many lost their lives here!"

"But, commander…"

"Enough, we are heading back now. I will report to Dr. Thoth personally."


	12. 11: Contradicting Thoughts

**Chapter 11: Contradicting Thoughts**

 **I had a great deal of headache writing the next two chapters, rewriting them again and again. Ultimately, it turned out to be... rather controversial. Hopefully it's not too bad and would not hamper your enjoyment. Brace yourselves, and read on!**

Zero, still battered and damaged from the previous confrontation against Magma Dragoon, did not make returning to the recovery room his priority, instead, he limped his way to Dr. Thoth's chambers.

"Dr. Thoth!" Zero exclaimed soon after he entered the room.

"Ah, Zero, glad to see you return safely." Dr. Thoth turned his back around to face Zero. Zero did not notice this at first, but the Supreme Commander's fingers were mostly crooked, probably from handling dangerous chemicals, fiddling with machineries and typing countless theses and reports. Despite his stern appearance and unnerving glare, he actually looked rather feeble, his hair was greyish and unkempt, his back hunched a little and the white lab coat he wore did not look as if it was recently washed in the past few months. All these details were only seen from up close, in other times Zero was always looking at the professor from far, far away. He looked every bit, a human, an aging one.

Zero had no time to sympathize with Dr. Thoth's health condition, he walked up to him, agonizingly, as fast as he could. "Why were there soldiers coming to back me up at the Volcano?" Zero spoke, his tone furious and impatient.

"I could not risk losing one of our best soldiers in such a petty operation, Zero, please understand!" Dr. Thoth's crude voice which was commanding as usually now holds a pleading tone within. He sounded desperate, and insecure.

"Then why didn't you understand the reason why I went alone!?" Zero grabbed the professor's stained lab coat on the collar as soon as he came into distance, his head totally all over him now where he forgot the man he confronted was his superior. "Did you know how many died!? Among those who came to back me up?"

Dr. Thoth did not immediately answer, not only that Zero's actions intimidated him, he had yet to receive a mission report from the Volcano as well. The one handling him right now was supposed to be the one to report to him, first hand. Fearfully, he swallowed his throat, and waited for an answer.

"Almost all of them… only five survived. They were instantly wiped out by Dragoon in front of my eyes! Dragoon had zero tolerance for interrupting his moment!"

Zero recalled there were two units who came, the Fourth Unit and the Fifth Unit, all of them accounted to a total of fifty people. He thought there were three units at first, he was wrong. It was a minor bliss amongst a major catastrophe. However, no matter the amount of soldiers they had, nearly all of them were wiped out by a grossly empowered Dragoon. It was unbelievable, for one Maverick to bear such incredible power.

"But! You will die if we didn't come and back you up!" Dr. Thoth reiterated.

Zero's patience had reached a boiling point, he raised a fist trying to drill it into Dr. Thoth's face. At this abrupt moment, X appeared and grabbed Zero's fist before it connected, stopping it midway.

"Stop… Zero, don't rush things!"

Zero let go of Dr. Thoth and removed his fist. The professor was immediately relieved, but was still extremely terrified at his red Maverick Hunter. X attempted to look at Zero in the eye, but Zero quickly turned away.

"Don't you get it, Dr. Thoth merely wanted to provide help! He was right, from what I heard from the survivors, you would not stand a chance against Dragoon!"

X's word hit Zero's heart like a sharp knife. He was absolutely right, there was no way he would defeat Dragoon, he was utterly outmatched, was it not because of the intervention and sacrifice of those Maverick Hunters, he wouldn't be standing here, right now.

Zero, frustrated but had to accept the bitter truth, walked away a few steps before he came to a complete stop. He recalled the dying words of Dragoon, which were of utmost importance for this war.

"Sky Lagoon…" He began.

"What?" X and Dr. Thoth did not hear Zero clearly, his voice mumbled and did not come out, but surely he had caught their attention now. Dr. Thoth slowly climbed back to his feet, his weak back not helping much.

Zero did not resume immediately, his head filled with a myriad of feelings – anger, confusion, grief and most of all, agony. He still could not believe one of his most respected comrades would do such a thing. Not Dragoon.

"Sky Lagoon's fall… was not caused by the Repliforce."

"What!?" The same word, but a much different tone by the two listeners, this time mixed with much puzzled tone, and utter surprise.

"Dragoon himself testified, in his dying words. It was his doing that Sky Lagoon collapsed, not the Repliforce. We were all wrong." Zero found himself difficult to piece out the words together, he spoke slower and slower as he went on.

"How could this be…?"

X had yet to finish his sentence before he got startled by Zero slamming the nearest table in front of him, his head lowered and his fist shaking. "Why… Dragoon… why…?"

It was the worst kind of news that the Maverick Hunters could've hope for. They were wrong, all this time, and such a mistake ultimately started the war. It was unfathomable that Magma Dragoon would do such a thing. X knew Dragoon pretty well, he was not one to perform such atrocious deeds, an act that caused the death of thousands of lives, and an entire city to collapse.

Dr. Thoth could not immediately answer, the right words didn't come to him as he struggled to grasp the situation. He was just a lowly researcher, not a war strategist, and never a leader. Now, with such a blunder from themselves for declaring the entire Repliforce as Mavericks, surely the Maverick Hunters deserve the lion's share of the blame.

Who was the man responsible for such a decision in the first place? Dr. Thoth himself.

"Z… Zero? Is this true?" His voice no longer as powerful as before, his ego shattered, now he sounded weak, unassured, and trembling. His legs slowly gave way as well, as he found himself on his knees, so feeble that he could not stand for a moment.

X helped the professor back to his feet, looking at him for a moment, pitying at how drastically the proud professor had changed, "Professor, I believe we have to call on an emergency meeting among the commanders of every units, this must be known to us all, it's crucial information." X said straightly, keeping his cool as hardest as he could, now that his usually cool-headed red Hunter friend had lost his.

As he helped the professor, X observed more of the Supreme Commander's facial features, severely wrinkled, his eyes dispirited and overall he exuded a gloomy aura.

"Yes… yes… we need to gather everyone… we need everyone…" Dr. Thoth said meekly, his voice still weak and trembling.

Zero finally collected himself, standing straight back up, giving his best saluting gesture and said, "roger, sir!"

Dr. Thoth noticed his commander in his terribly bad shape, "the meeting will be held after you recuperate, commander," he added.

Zero, although never liking the supreme commander before, began to have a change of heart, "very well, sir, thank you for your kind consideration." As he finished speaking, he turned his heel and exited the room, heading to the recovery room.

"Professor, if you may, I would leave now as well." X requested.

"Permitted."

Dr. Thoth lowered his rear onto his most trusty chair in the room, still feeling very uneasy and unassured of himself. He hardly left the laboratory to meet people, let alone leading an army. Yet when given the chance, he could not resist the temptation of being called "Supreme Commander of the Maverick Hunters", the respected title held by the late Dr. Cain. At first, he believed that he would have no qualms upholding his legacy, all he had to do, was to direct his soldiers to control some Maverick outbreaks, but now, his hands were full due to some war between two peace holders of Reploids.

Zero returned to the recovery room to recuperate, his armor detached, revealing his exposed circuitry, many of which were severed by the impact from Dragoon's mighty attacks. Pain signals were transmitted to his thinking processor every time the mechanic attempted to reconnect and reconfigure his cables.

"Commander Zero, the damage you sustained this time, it's one of your worst." Douglas, the head mechanic, chose to undergo the repairs on Zero himself. The Hunters needed Zero back and fit as soon as possible, they could not risk any more casualties lightly.

"Be quick with it, Douglas, I don't have time lying down here." Zero was direct with his intentions, but deeply he admitted that Dragoon gave him quite a beating.

Indeed, was it not because of reinforcements, he would already be melting in the Volcano.

Thankfully, he had Douglas working on him, the best mechanic around, he would normally spend time researching stuffs at the R&D department, not sitting around treating some wounded soldiers, which would be the job for those repairmen.

But of course, due to this war and the circumstances, Zero was an exception this time.

Sparks were flying around as Douglas connected the wires and worked them around Zero's circuitry, Zero lied totally motionless, but not totally unaware of his surroundings.

Naturally, he also noticed a Reploid came barging in with some dreadful news.

"Commander Zero!" He blurted out.

"What is it? We are in the middle of a repair here!" Douglas replied, thoroughly annoyed, having a penchant of hating being interrupted midway, especially during his works.

"It's… it's Colonel of the Repliforce! He demands your presence right now! He's just outside our main entrance!"

"What!?" Zero sprang up from his repair table, cables still connected all around his body. Pain pulsed around his body during this instant, and he grabbed the part that released the most pain – his torso.

 _Why is he here, why now?_ Flurries of data worked their way inside Zero's thought computer. _He must be here to get Iris!_ The first logical conclusion that came into Zero. _Colonel disliked waiting._ He did not have all day to figure out the best solution, nor to rally his other commanders to discuss this. Ultimately, the only option he had, was to face Colonel right now.

But could he win? Hardly, but at least he could reason with Colonel. Whatever it was, he had to get out there and see him.

"You are in no shape to move now! Nor to fight!" Douglas quickly got up from his chair and pressed Zero down, but the red Hunter resisted, pushing his mechanic away, and began unplugging all his wires from all the monitors, rearmed himself with his armor and weapons, and forcefully got back to his feet.

His footing was weak, his left knee gave way for a while, and Zero could not bring it back up. "Zero!" Douglas yelled. But Zero ignored him, slowly pulling himself towards the exit, to meet his ultimate rival.


	13. 12: End of Discussion

**Chapter 12: End of Discussion**

Colonel stood firm with his blue sword held down straight pointing towards the ground, several Maverick Hunters surrounded him, weapons ready to strike should the opponent make any moves that may pose a threat. Colonel was unfazed, he waited patiently, not moving a single inch that would provoke the Hunters from attacking.

Zero, totally in bad shape, hardly recovered from his near-death skirmish against Magma Dragoon, dragged himself to face Colonel, his green Z-Saber tightly gripped in his right hand. As Zero approached the scene, the group of Maverick Hunters opened a path to him, allowing him to see Colonel face to face.

"You look terrible." Colonel mentioned, disappointingly.

He was awfully right. Zero was largely unpolished from the fight against Dragoon, his armor and body parts were mostly scratched and burnt marks could easily be spotted on many places. Clearly he did not had time to recover from a previous mission.

"Why are you here?" Zero asked, straight to the point.

"I am here for my sister Iris. Is she here? You have kept her for… too long." Colonel demanded, interestingly, he did not ask for his sister directly, instead opting to redirect the demand towards Zero. Zero immediately deduced three reasons: One was because Iris wasn't actually a member of the Maverick Hunters, she could not be given the authority to meet a commanding officer of an enemy of war so easily; secondly, Zero was a high ranking officer of the Hunters, and he was the perfect person to look for regarding Iris; and lastly…

There were too many personal issues between the two of them. The rivalry between them was fierce, even more than Zero's and Dragoon's. At one point Colonel was against Zero going out with Iris, only with a good old duel where Zero was able to win her over. Beyond that, they had many more duels together, and their win ratio was equal. In missions, they had worked together before, but lately the tension between the Maverick Hunters and the Repliforce had increased, instead they worked on their own separate objectives.

Before, it was all friendly between them. Now, it was not.

Zero closed his eyes to ponder longer, before answering, "Indeed, Iris is here. However, I do not intend to return her to you. I believe she's much safer with us." Zero answered firmly, he did not want to lose Iris right now, not now.

"Hmph, ridiculous. She belonged to us. Surely the Repliforce would do a better job safeguarding her than the enemy. What were you even thinking, Zero?" Colonel asked, in fact he already knew the answer.

Both of them were too close, they knew each other too well. To them both, Iris was literally the most important person in the world. To Colonel, she's the only relative he had, and a direct twin Reploid of his, since the beginning of their operation, they had been together. For Zero, she's everything to him, that sweet and gentle demeanor, melting Zero's heart every time, also, that smile of hers was simply too wonderful, and must be protected.

There were hardly any secrets between them, yet it was precisely of this war, they realized that they could not show their weakness so easily.

Not that Zero had any choice, he was battered badly by Dragoon, and Colonel showed up during such a brilliant moment.

Another thought flashed in Zero's head, although this notion had yet to be approved by the highest officers of the Hunters, but perhaps Colonel would understand.

"Colonel, listen carefully to what I have to say." Zero took a step forward. Eyes determined.

Colonel did not reply immediately, but seeing Zero's resolved gaze, he gave in, "Fine."

"The Maverick Hunters wished to stop the war." Zero began.

"Why?" Colonel asked immediately, upset to see his rival putting down a fight.

"We had found out the truth behind the fall of Sky Lagoon. It was caused by Magma Dragoon, one of our own. He was already terminated." He continued.

"So, you are telling me you Maverick Hunters had made a mistake in labeling us as Mavericks?"

"Yes… I hoped that you would stop the coup now. It's not too late."

There was an unnerving silence as Zero and the other Maverick Hunters waited for Colonel's decision. He took his time thinking this out, eyes closed and he tapped his fingers onto his other fist resting on the tip of the sheath of his saber. When he was finally ready to give a reply, he stepped forward.

"I am utterly disappointed in you, Zero."

"What!?"

"Do you think that us being labelled as Mavericks, is the sole reason for us to initiate this war? No. All these years, we've had enough of the humans losing their trust on us. We are Reploids, we cannot coexist with humans, the world would be better off where only we, the Reploids exist."

Colonel could not be any more direct with his words. Humans had only held the Repliforce with disdain, regardless of how efficient they performed their duties. They were always seen to be inferior to the Maverick Hunters, who existed much longer than them.

Since their masters never gave them any credit, why bother coexisting with them? It's not like the Reploids could not fend for themselves. No, with only Reploids, there would be no prejudice in this world, humans were always irrational and illogical beings, their body were weakly built, and their lives were short-lived. Reploids were easily superior.

As Colonel had finished his speech, the other Maverick Hunters quickly fortified their stance, preparing to strike, for they all had felt hostility from the Repliforce officer.

Zero shook his head, "I am disappointed in you as well, Colonel. Such selfish thoughts…"

Zero would never agree with Colonel, the Repliforce. It was imbecile to betray your masters, your creators. Without the humans, there won't be any Reploids in the world. The humans could be reasoned with, they were after all, intelligent beings. It was precisely this conflict of ideologies, that caused this war.

 _This scenario… again._ Zero found himself at the exact same situation as he was with Dragoon. A powerful opponent, one he could not defeat alone. Comrades all over the place, putting them all in danger. He wanted to order them to leave, then again…

" _You will die if we didn't come and back you up!"_ Dr. Thoth's voice echoed in his thought computer, he admitted that the professor was not wrong in that matter. There were times where pride must be put aside, or else the Maverick Hunters would suffer a much greater loss.

Zero also realized how important he was to the Maverick Hunters right now, he used to put himself ahead of danger and often took rash decisions, and he really needed to rethink this. Who made him realize that? Dr. Thoth.

Wait. Right now they weren't in some volcano or jungle. They were just outside the Headquarters. Backup must be arriving soon enough, all he had to do was to delay Colonel for a while, and once reinforcements arrived, the sheer amount of manpower they had should be sufficient to drive Colonel away.

"Zero…" Colonel suddenly spoke. "You've changed."

 _What!?_

"You are hesitating. This never happened to you. Where is your pride?"

 _Damn that Colonel…_ He was taunting him again, just like Dragoon did. Colonel knew him too well. Zero never backed down from a fight, he was extremely proud of his own abilities, he would never give up until the very end.

It wasn't like him right now. Dragoon just tarnished that pride of his, and now Colonel was trying to crush it down.

"Soldiers never drop their weapons. It is cowardly of you to even consider this."

 _Coward?_

"Everyone, step back, no matter what, do not interfere with this fight until I gave the permission."

"But, Commander Zero!"

"Don't worry, I know what I am doing." Zero turned his back to face Colonel. His front leg advanced a little, Colonel noticed this, and reared back a little.

"Prepare yourself!" Zero charged at Colonel, swinging a horizontal slash with his Z-Saber from his waist, only to have it blocked by Colonel holding his sword firm. Zero knew his strength wasn't fully recovered, so he couldn't risk trying to push his rival's sword away.

Zero jumped away, but just as soon he moved his eyes back onto Colonel, his opponent was no longer there.

It was Colonel's favorite attack, using his unbelievable agility, he could move himself so fast as if he vanished, and appeared behind his enemy. Zero quickly rolled away, barely avoiding Colonel's strike by a hairline. The red Hunter hastily retaliated by countering with a quick slash, but Colonel disappeared again to hack him at his back.

Luckily, Zero was fast enough to turn his back around and block the attack with his Z Saber. Colonel then reappeared much further away, swinging his blue sword down, generating a blue shockwave towards Zero. Zero dodged the first one, but there were two more coming right up, prompting him to jump high up.

"Hyouretsuzan!" Zero enveloped his Z Saber and dived straight down onto Colonel, only to strike nothing but the ground, the shattered ice hitting nobody as Colonel had already long vanished from that spot.

"Too slow." Colonel reappeared behind Zero and attempted to cut him down, which Zero managed to barely block again. Both of them continued to exchange blows, they were quite even at first, but his poor condition caused Zero to wear himself down much faster than Colonel.

Colonel, knowing very well victory would soon be his, disappeared and reappeared behind Zero, but this time, he did not attack, instead he dashed again, showing up beside Zero, who was not prepared to defend against such a swift successive maneuver. Zero could only lift up his Z Saber, but it wasn't enough to have Colonel's blue sword knocking it away and send him flying, causing him to land on his rear.

Now having Zero at his mercy, pulled his sword to deliver a final strike to end the battle.

"Stop! Please!" A female voice echoed out from afar. It was Iris, who rushed to the scene immediately after being notified to put an immediate end to the fight between her lover and brother. "Brother, please! Don't you remember? Zero saved my life!"

Colonel paused, Iris's eyes made him stop, then he looked back at Zero, who was obviously terribly hurt and hence could not provide a decent fight. Colonel turned away from Zero and walked towards Iris. "Come with me." He told her.

"No, not now, brother." Iris stated, "I… I still don't know where I belong right now. I wish… to stay here with Zero, for now."

Colonel tapped his large hands onto Iris's lean shoulders, his sister's eyes were sincere and from them, he could see how much he cared for Zero, as well as himself, her one and only brother. Deep down, she really did not want them to fight.

In the end, Colonel sighed, "Very well. You are far from your best today, Zero, and I was extremely dissatisfied." He looked at his weakened and defeated rival slowly getting back up from the ground and walked away, "I will spare your life for now, but next time there will be no mercy."

Iris quickly ran to Zero, holding him up and supported him the moment he almost lost his balance. "Zero, please! Don't fight with my brother! I do not want to see you two fight! Or else…"

Zero, his pride thoroughly hurt, was ashamed of himself for letting his rival best him so easily. This time, he was let off the leash and escaped death, but next time, who knows what the outcome will be between them?

In this war, should it not end, the two of them were bound to face each other again, and certainly, one of them must perish as an aftermath of this war.

Zero knew this, perfectly well.

However, at the looks of things, it seemed impossible that the Repliforce will listen to any of the Maverick Hunters's demands, they were the ones who were wrong, and to expect the accused to forgive them so easily…

It was simply naive.

The war must go on, and the only way to stop it, was to have one side rise above another.

"Someone… must stop Repliforce…!" Zero clenched his fist hard that it shook slightly, and slowly walked away from Iris.

"Zero!" Iris called out to him, but he did not turn back to look at her, continuing his staggering walk towards the main entrance of the H.Q. He was depleted, defeated, and humiliated.

* * *

"So… the Maverick Hunters wanted to negotiate with us." General murmured, his tone flat as usual.

"Do you really intend to consider their demands?" The hooded figure, again found his way sitting inside the conference room of the Repliforce Headquarters with the General.

"Not a chance. They brought this upon themselves. Our reputation would never be restored among the humans, not until we had won this war."

The other man chuckled in delight. Everything was going exactly as he planned. He knew Zero would be extremely damaged from the fight against Dragoon, and through the General, he sent Colonel to the Maverick Hunters H.Q, the timing was impeccable. Colonel was very worried about his dear sister, and hence, a perfect pawn. Furthermore, Zero could not resist a taunt from his closest rival, especially when his pride was on the line.

The Repliforce were desperate for recognition, and they had lost that. It was reason enough to wage this war.

As for Zero, he was again defeated, two times straight. His self-esteem would surely be a new time low right now, and seeing him suffer was extremely pleasing to witness.

 _This is too easy, almost too easy._ He wanted to laugh out as loudly as he could, but in the presence of General, he held it down, but his shoulders could not contain his joy, as they jumped up and down slightly for quite some time.

 **So that's it for this part! I really changed a whole lot of things here, as I had a lot of issues with the original cutscene. Colonel's battle at the Memorial Hall, be it X's or Zero's, both are actually weird in a sense that there wasn't any purpose in those 2 clashes. In a war, I believe that every second counts, and that both parties shouldn't be wasting time in needless confrontation that resulted in nothing.**

 **With that said, I made a lot of changes, in a direction that I preferred. I hope you guys liked it, and again, every favorites, follows and reviews, I greatly appreciate them, thanks!**


	14. 13: Train (1) - Desperate Resolution

**Chapter 13: Military Train (I) – Desperate Resolution**

Having repaired by Douglas a second time straight, a fully recovered Zero found himself surrounded by the commanders of every unit of the Maverick Hunters, as well as Dr. Thoth, the Supreme Commander.

None of the discussions during the meeting was heeded by Zero, his brain circuits fully occupied by his own dilemma. This battle was a lost cause, it could be avoided in the first, but it had reached a point of no return. What pained Zero the most was the fact that he could no longer run away from this war, at some point, he would had to face Colonel, and kill him, or else he would be the one who would fall. As the war dragged on, he had no idea how long he could keep Iris, if all was like he hoped for, she would turn against her own people and join the Maverick Hunters.

Would that be so?

Iris already begged the two of them not to fight, but her plea certainly was, in vain. Colonel firmly stated that the Repliforce would not cease the coup, giving the Maverick Hunters little choice but to continue oppose them, causing more bloodshed.

The only thing he could do, was to keep Iris away from all this. When it's all over, they would be reunited, and from there on, things would change. Iris was skilled in navigation, she could easily be one of the Hunters without much hassle.

The meeting led to nowhere, most of the commanders were furious at how they made such a blunder in labeling the Repliforce as Mavericks just so. Dr. Thoth repeatedly apologized for his overly enthusiastic decision that was made without much thought. He initially believed that the humans were all at his side, seeing how the distrust towards Repliforce had swelled to a point where many were asking for their disbandment. However, the humans were not the ones who participate in the war, the Reploids were.

Repliforce was no small army, their morale incredibly strong thanks to great leaders like General and Colonel, their numbers were pretty much equal compared to the Maverick Hunters.

After Dr. Cain's death, the Hunters were no longer enjoying as much glory as they were, there was no leadership, as well as lacking a genius working on rare bugs that could not be solved by normal scientists or mechanics. Dr. Thoth was an able scientist, but not as proficient as Dr. Cain, who managed to build the entire blueprint of Reploids from studying X, Dr. Thoth could never replicate such greatness, nor had the same charisma to lead the Hunters.

These Reploids were very sophisticated, they could tell whether the current leadership was worth following or not. Some had left to join the Repliforce, while some went on to live freely, to a point few had become Mavericks themselves.

Dr. Thoth tried to rule with fear and intimidation, but ultimately it backfired.

In front of his commanders now, he appeared powerless, hapless and clueless. Many opposed to the notion of surrendering, even slamming Zero for his cowardly actions, which never receive a response from the deeply pondering hunter, his eyes closed and his hands crossed resting below his nose.

X tried to control the situation, but in the end, it was Signas, the commander of the Ninth Special Forces. Modeled after a military general, complete with the blue uniform and the blue cap on his head, his presence was large.

"Surrender was no longer an option," he started, "we must continue to fight this war, and win it. There is no other way around."

He went on and analyzed the details between both forces, the Repliforce had occupied many cities initially, but they had not spread further, and a pattern was found, the cities were all surrounding the headquarters of Repliforce.

"I'd say they might be building something." Signas continued. Many others nodded their heads in agreement. "Therefore, we must find out their agenda, their final objective, and weaken them from there." He went on and pointed out the transport routes that Repliforce secured, train stations, airports and harbors.

"Sir, may I come in?" A familiar voice came knocking at the door. It was a male's voice yet it was mellow and easygoing.

"We are in the middle of a very important meeting here!" One of the more hotheaded commanders cried out.

"Wait, it's Double." X was the first to recognize the voice. "What is it? Did you bring something?"

"Yes, I had collected the data on the transport activities of the Repliforce on a daily basis."

"Brilliant timing," Signas exclaimed with joy, "Come in."

Double walked clumsily in holding stacks of papers, he almost dropped them when he took the first step. Slowly and carefully, he struggled to get the papers onto the table, laying them out. Signas and the rest of the commanders quickly studied these newly acquired vital information, and it was concluded that various supplies from multiple locations were repeatedly transported to the Repliforce headquarters. Not only that, they also obtained the schedule of the products being moved out, making it easy for them to intercept and weaken the Repliforce.

"I will stop the trains," Zero suddenly voiced out. He let out a long sigh, before standing up and resumed, "my Shinobi Unit moves best on places like these."

"Then my unit will move and engage with their air force," X volunteered.

"X, my team will join with yours," said Storm Raven, the commander of the Seventh Air Cavalry. "Combined with your long ranged attacks and our mobility, the Repliforce don't stand a chance."

More and more units volunteered to move to locations which may help them gain advantage over the Repliforce. The Maverick Hunters were pretty much on the defensive, and now it would change.

"Take heed that our numbers dwarf theirs, so efficiency is of utmost importance, don't recklessly throw your lives away." Signas added.

"Roger!" The voices of every commander echoed in the conference room. The meeting ended soon after, Double received much of his well-deserved praise, while Dr. Thoth had been reduced to a silent role for the latter half of the meeting.

Zero felt his determination renewed. He would win this war, and save everyone, especially Iris.

"You are going again?"

"Iris…"

"You barely made it back with your life just few hours ago, and then you almost lost it again after fighting with my brother… and now…?" Iris couldn't help but sobbed, her heart pain stricken and her mind felt tortured with the thought of her dear brother was going to clash again with Zero. It was a helpless cause, but she felt she did not belong anywhere yet heavily involved in this war

"Believe in me, Iris, the Maverick Hunters will win this war, and everyone will be alright." Zero tried to reassure her, but was quickly brushed off by Iris.

"How? Wars always have casualties, with you and brother fighting on the front lines, how could I possibly believe that both of you would be alright?"

Zero went numb, the truth behind her words was absolute. His renewed determination, was merely a farce to push himself to go on. He subconsciously opted to block out the unfavorable outcomes of the war, consoling himself with the best possible scenarios.

Ultimately, it's either he lives and Colonel falls, or the other way round.

"Iris, we don't have a choice. The Repliforce refused to end the war, and for the wellbeing of everyone, we must continue… we cannot lose…" Zero felt his voice awfully tense yet feeble, he sounded desperate, yet powerless to convince his woman to trust him completely.

Iris remained silent. Zero let out another sigh, and went along to hug her, "Navigate for me, will you? Protect me."

Iris did not know what to answer. Navigating for Zero was fine and all, what if her brother shows up on her screen? Would she be bold enough to turn against her brother and take Zero's side, or would the opposite scenario occurred?

In the end, it was an endless loop of dilemma, for the both of them. This war was too intimate, too many things to consider, too unforgiving.

However, running away was never an option, fate disallowed it.


	15. 14: Train (2) – Full Speed Raid

**Chapter 14 – Military Train (II) – Full Speed Raid**

"Keep up the good work, Double."

"Yes sir, the pleasure is mine."

The scales had been balanced, and the bald man was laughing maniacally again in his delight.

The room was dark, the only thing that can be vaguely seen were the teal tint on his eyes, as well as faint purple glow from Double's limbs. Double's voice was much different than usual, it sounded sinister and crazy, even his chuckle was full of sadistic pleasure.

Everything was well within his calculations, he was holding a traditional balancing scale, equipped with two plates on both sides connected with a fine string to the center, he added and removed chess pieces of white and black, separated on either sides based on their color, and came to the perfect balance.

"Now… who shall be the first to fall? Hee hee hee…"

It was 1045 in the morning, the military train of the Repliforce was notably old and outdated. It was initially a freight train, its purpose remained unchanged, but to be prepared for this war, it was modified and upgraded to have numerous cannons and other defense mounted on it, there were several infantries littered around as well, most of them were Knot Berets and Metalls.

At current point, it was moving from City Z to the headquarters of Repliforce. This route had the longest distance, and hence became the prime target for the Maverick Hunters to intercept.

To ensure absolute success, Zero had proposed to deploy the entire Shinobi Unit to raid the military train. The stakes were far too high at this point of the war, and failure would further escalate their defeat. Anytime they had men outside attacking the Repliforce, the defense of the H.Q. will be thinner, and who knows when the Repliforce would strike at their home base?

Furthermore, Iris was not part of this operation. Her mental circuits were still unstable since her brother showed up at the H.Q., and someone else had to take the reins as the navigator.

Zero was especially upset about this, feeling Iris was beginning to distant herself from him, and he did not know what to do about her, despite the fact that they were a couple.

"Zeroth unit, you copy?"

"Affirmative." Zero spoke as his unit had just landed.

"You are now located at an abandoned station where the train will be passing by any minute. You are to intercept it by boarding it forcefully, removing any obstacle that may hinder your progress to sabotage the train and prevent it from reaching its destination."

"How far are we from the Repliforce H.Q.? How fast is the train?"

"You are 86 unimiles away from their destination, the train is moving at the speed of 150 unimiles per hour."

"Pretty fast for an outdated train, we only have around 30 minutes to stop it." Quartz mentioned.

"Well, you just have to jump up when it shows up!" Ruby exclaimed, still her cheerful side.

"Then? Blow everything up?" Dia questioned, keeping up with the pun.

"If so then I am out of this, see ya," said Lapis sarcastically.

They shared few giggles, but Zero did not have any of it, he heard none of their voices, except the approaching noise from the train wheel scraping against the rails, as well as his inner voice.

 _I have to end this war quickly, so that everyone will be saved… Iris will be saved._

All he had in his mind, right now, was Iris.

"Train approaching! Prepare to jump!" Zero cried out, when he saw the train's head sticking out from the junction. His other comrades readied themselves, but Zero was the one to make the first and impatient jump, hastily landing on the ongoing train's roof and opened his account on the nearest infantry stationed on top of the train, slicing the poor Knot Beret's torso into half. He did not stop there, continuing his way to hack the remaining defenses on the roof of the first car, making his way to the door where he would be able to hijack the train and stop it on its tracks.

"Hurry! Follow the commander!" Onyx, one of the Shinobi Unit members whose color scheme was mostly black, was the most alert of all and quickly signaled his other lagging teammates to catch up. They leaped and shuffled on the roof, taking down any incoming Bat Bones that were stationed along the path the train passed.

They were all equipped with grip boots, providing better stability whilst navigating on top of a moving train. Not to mention this unit was famous for their unrivaled mobility, capable of running circles around the enemies before delivering them to their demise.

Just as Zero made his way to the control room, he noticed how one of the Knot Berets smirked from the other car just opposite of him, throwing a grenade which effectively destroyed the metal connector between the first car and the second car, which the latter performed an emergency stop and began heading the opposite direction.

 _They had another control car in the other end!?_ Zero was quick to realize this and made a long leap of faith to reach the other side. Some of his other teammates made it as well, but half of them were a fraction too late and the distance had become too great for them.

"Take control of the train and drive it towards us!" Zero launched a quick directive, and Lapis, one of the members stuck in the solitary train, returned the affirmative and begun hijacking the train. The remaining Shinobi Unit members had no choice but to go on for now without half of their members, they still have around 5, but Zero did not bother with that.

If anything, probably he alone could take down this whole thing.

The raid continued, there were some crates placed strategically to impede the invaders' progress, but with his newly developed Ryuuenjin, Zero made short work of them, melting the wooden and metal compartments of the crates in an instant.

There were plasma cannons located around vital spots of the train, they took a second to charge, releasing a loud hum as blue colored energy began gathering at its nozzle, which it then fired a moderately large blue laser forward.

"Duck!" Zero yelled as he immediately followed his own orders, his other comrades, gladly also followed suit, managing to catch up to him despite how fast he was going.

After finish its first assault, the plasma cannon proceeded to release rocket projectiles while waiting for its plasma engine to cool down for a second barrage. It was during this brief interval that Zero leaped above those incoming rockets and slammed a powerful Hyouretsuzan onto the core of the cannon, causing it to explode seconds after.

"Commander! Ahead of you!" Zero quickly lifted his head after Dia called out to him, again, another of those Knot Berets throwing a grenade to sever the metal connector and separating the trains.

"Damn it!" With utmost haste, he got back up onto his feet and charged towards the next train. The same Knot Beret noticed this and quickly grabbed another bomb and toss it towards Zero's path, but it was brought down by an accurate shot of Ruby's energy rifle.

No time to say thanks, Zero leaped with all his might and immediately cut down the enemy with a horizontal slash from his Z-Saber the moment contact was made. This time, everyone managed to board this car, the same tactic failed the second time, a sense of relief and a boost of morale befell the Shinobi Unit.

 _Why are they abandoning car after car? What about the supplies?_

Zero's woes were not for long, the navigator followed up soon after, "Head's up! It looks like the train is taking a detour through J City! Keep on the move to the other end of the train to stop it before it reaches the Repliforce headquarters!"

Quite an elaborate backup plan, Zero imagined, found himself impressed by the tactical brilliance of Repliforce for a moment. _It has to be Colonel…_ he thought, quickly brushing it off and returned his focus onto the enemies ahead.

As they advanced further, the defense became tighter, they were quickly caught in surprise by opposing Raidens riding the Ride Armors and charging at them with full force. Their defense stubborn to crack, their speed vicious from the jet packs equipped on the armors, and a powerful forward thrust from a hypercharged plasma sword was truly a force to be reckoned with. On many occasions the zeroth unit were almost caught by the devastating onslaughts of multiple Raidens, requiring a meticulous maneuver and hard-pressed teamwork to get past them. Zero would often be the first one to run into them, creating a diversion by dodging them all with his prideful speed, while the others would launch a full assault to destroy the distracted Raidens. This strategy worked well with enemies less than two, when there's three together, Zero would be left with no space to zip through them, and another plan had to be laid out.

Ruby would toss out a flash bomb which hindered the movements of the three Raidens, Zero would then run in and cast Ryuuenjin on the closest one and sending it to the air, leaving the remaining two to be picked off by the powerful energy cannons and swords possessed by Dia, Onyx and Sapphire, not wasting time and aiming directly at the vital cores to vanquish the foes with utmost accuracy.

It won't be long enough before the train entered a tunnel hardly illuminated, darkness befell them as they quickly switched to night vision glasses.

"Above you!" Sapphire yelled out just after she spotted a swarm of Bat Bones stationed in the tunnel, charging at them in huge numbers. Just as the first Bat Bone approached them, Zero pulled himself as high up onto the air, twirling his Z-Saber around to catch it as well as many nearby he could. Onyx quickly provide cover by blasting off the big batch just behind, else Zero would had been torn to shreds midair. The move was reckless, but the initiative was still decent enough that all the Shinobi Unit members were able to follow up easily by connecting one attack after another to take down the enemies one group at a time. Not long after they were safe from the threat of mechanized bats.

But there were still enemies ahead, almost caught by surprise by a sudden plasma laser fired off from a cannon unsighted from the team, the zeroth unit found themselves dodging the laser just underneath it, being at the mercy of the cannon situated at a heightened location.

After a brief sigh of relief, the team gathered themselves and continued their attack. They regained their aggressiveness with Zero torching the plasma cannon with Ryuuenjin which also lit up the tunnel temporarily.

Several Raidens and Knot Berets resumed their defense of the train, the zeroth unit broke apart to dodge any collective attacks, then returned together to bring down their foes in a collective attack.

Just as they were nearing the end of the tunnel, the light from outside seen as a small speck, gradually enlarging as they approached it, a growl was heard, a beastly growl.

 _What was that…?_

"Warning! Powerful readings detected ahead!"

None of them were given any time to ponder about what the navigator had warned them as the source of the beastly growl quickly evolved to a menacing roar, a golden brown figure charged in and caught Dia, pinning and slamming him to the edge of the car they were on.

 _F… fast!_ None of them witnessed what happened, except for Zero, who gritted his teeth, sent an order for Dia to retreat before charging towards the lightning-speed beast that took down one of his valuable comrades. His Z-Saber was met with mightily hard claws, suspected to be Adamantium.

It should be expected, such an important military train should had a high ranking Repliforce officer to take charge of it. Someone had to be the one to bark out the orders such as blasting away car after car and taking the detour.

As they passed through the train and back into the illuminated outside, Zero could finally see the true face of his opponent, Slash Beast.

He was modeled after a lion, his mane as well as his four limbs were equipped with sharpened Adamantium, with the rest of his body fortified with it. His color scheme was mostly yellow and orange, the powerful alloy illuminating under the sunlight gave an impression of a golden sparkle, if anything, he was a sophisticated Reploid, totally worthy to lead a unit of the Repliforce.

And he also seemed to be hungry for battle.

"So it was you who attacked my unit!" Slash Beast roared. His howl released powerful gusts of wind that threw Zero and co. off balance, seizing the opportunity he quickly leaped high using his mighty feet and slammed down on his unnerved foes underneath. The remainder of the Shinobi Unit did just enough to tumble away from the devastating impact, as Slash Beast went right through the roof and landed into the car.

 _Such power!_

It did not take long for Slash Beast to recharge himself as he again tucked down his knee for a second attack, using his incredibly sturdy head he slammed through the roof again, catching Onyx in the process and sending the Maverick Hunter flying away heavily damaged.

"Dammit!" Zero was not amused. Within such a short time Slash Beast had already taken out two of his men.

"It was foolish and reckless of you to challenge my unit!" Slash Beast proclaimed, letting out another growl as he turned to face the leader of the Shinobi Unit.

Zero did not gave his opponent the privilege to fully prepare, opting to rush in right off the bat. Their eyes were locked on as Beast smirked a little from excitement. Their weapons clashed, with Zero able to push Beast back a little due to the extra distance he had from the charge, but Beast steadied his ground using his strong feet to claw the ground, tearing the roof of the already damaged car, sending horrible metallic screeches.

Ruby and Sapphire, the only ones left to backup their commander, had their hands full with the oncoming Bat Bones and Knot Berets which may come from anywhere, as well as some Raidens which proved very difficult to take down without Zero. Both of the female Reploids were more specialized in ranged combat, whereas Dia and Onyx proved themselves proficient up close. It was still an ideal combination, until Beast removed them out of the picture. They had to rely on the quick-firing weaponries for now, but those had limited ammo, and when that's over…

"Ruby!"

Ruby gasped, her commander's voice from behind called for her in the midst of all that chaos, numerous Bat Bones still swarming all around her. A flash of green quickly zoomed in on her, when she turned around…

It was already too late.

Distraught struck Zero and Sapphire as they witnessed Ruby's body being split into two by Beast's Twin Slasher, brutally spiraling and pierced through Ruby's metallic body as if it was butter, slicing her into half from her right shoulder to her left waist. The damage was too severe, seconds later she had vanished in the form of a small explosion, leaving no traces of her behind.

 _You moron…!_

Sapphire, who witnessed the entire tragedy of seeing one of her best buddies being obliterated in an instant, collapsed and lost the will to fight any longer.

"Commander Zero! It would be wise to retreat for now!" The navigator said with utmost urgency.

"Override Sapphire's retreat system and take her away. I will finish this." Zero said slowly, his grief turned into anger, and the anger turned into rage. Never once did Zero lose as many as four of his trusted men, not to mention in such a short time. Zero could feel his circuits brimming with supercharged electricity, his brain circuit overflowing with multitudes of emotions.

"Do it!" Zero let loose his own version of a powerful howl, startling all the lesser minions around. Not having any other option but to obey Zero's reckless decision, the navigator booted Sapphire out of the scene, leaving the commander of the zeroth unit behind.

Beast was increasingly amused, "Come! Come at me!" He taunted, and Zero gladly accepted it.

On top of a train moving at high speeds, the two top ranked commanders of their respective forces had a mighty clash worthy to be written in the history books. Both of them were similar fighters, who loved to rely on brute strength and relentless agility, fighting for their lives in close combat. Their weapons crossed paths countless times, their bodies moved around on the long and narrow fighting arena, already encompassing multiple cars as they maneuvered around, not giving the other any form of advantage.

Now finding themselves onboard a peculiar car, in which it did not had a freight load, merely a low and flat surface which seemed to be built much sturdier than the roofs of the other cars. Beast seemed extremely pleased ever since they landed onto this car.

"It is here we will settle this!" Akin to an arena, the two resumed their battle. Beast preferred to attack from high up, sending himself to the sky and stomped down hoping to crush his foe, whereas Zero opted to be patient and went under him, waited for him to land before delivering a quick attack. It wasn't an easy task, however, as Beast hardly left any opening even after crashing down the ground, he would either immediately perform an acrobatic maneuver, throwing his legs up front and high enough to turn his body around and sent the powerful Twin Slashers that took Ruby's life. Should he be too close, Zero would also suffer the exact same fate.

However, if he waited too far away, either Slash Beast will leap up again, often at a varying height to catch his opponent predictions off, or transition into another attack, morphing his right arm into a drill, he would then charge into Zero with a speed surpassing all his other attacks, so fast that he couldn't stop until he had hit one of the walls built to withstand this attack of his, on the two sides of this car, then he would repeat the attack for two or three times before stopping.

Due to such a relentless combo, Zero found himself with almost no opportunity to land a decent attack. A fatal mistake and the sheer offensive power of Slash Beast would had no doubt put him to place. Despite all the rage boiling inside him, the red Maverick Hunter had no choice but to tread lightly.

The battle went on with Zero completely on defense while Beast did not falter in his attacks. However, Zero began to notice the delay between his attacks started to become more and more prominent.

 _This could be the chance I am waiting for!_

Seizing this as the perfect opportunity, Zero unleashed a quick Raijingeki just after Beast ended one of his jumping attacks, it managed to sever one of Beast's arms, hitting it right above his elbow and separating what's below it with the remaining of his body. Beast roared in pain, but it was ominously brief as Beast quickly collected himself and panting with exhilaration.

"Zerooooo!" He unexpected dived into Zero who was still retracting his lightning infused Z-Saber, grabbing his face and charged towards the furthest end of the car, attempting to slam his head hard and hopefully crushing it into a pulp.

 _No… no!_ Zero could not react in time, this attack was just as ridiculously fast as Beast's drilling attack, the speed and the ambush's nature caused Zero to drop his Z-Saber.

 _Is this the end?_

What Zero heard next was a similar howl of pain from Slash Beast he just heard seconds ago, whose sole arm was also detached from his body after being hit by a thin and powerful plasma beam. Together with the severed arm Zero slid underneath the onrushing Beast, who crashed into the wall armless. Instinctively Zero went to pick up his Z-Saber, quickly infused it with Raijingeki again, and shoved it into the core located on Beast's chest, ending his life.

"Commander Zero!" It was Lapis, who held a fired plasma raygun in his right arm, their train which was separated earlier managed to intercept the main train from another route, arriving in the perfect time to save their commander.

Zero fell to his knees in relief, the remaining forces of Repliforce nestled on the train escaped after realizing their commander was defeated, and the military train was successfully seized by the Maverick Hunters.

However, the extent of damage on the train was too great, as if this entire thing was a trap. The way Slash Beast fought was in no way trying to protect the goods, as he tore and smashed around, destroying anything blocking his path.

Nevertheless, this was a hard-earned victory for the Shinobi Unit, as they turned the train to their H.Q.


	16. 15: Marine Base (1) - Counterinitiative

**Chapter 15: Marine Base (I) – Counterinitiative**

Whatever remained from the heated battle against Slash Beast's unit were brought back to the Maverick Hunters H.Q. and the train had all its containers analyzed thoroughly. Most of the crates bore nothing much except for some redundant metal parts. Until a tiniest metal box was pried open, requiring some expertise from the mechanical unit to crack open.

"A laser eye!" Douglas mentioned, being the head of the mechanics, he was the one who brought the findings to the main table. Signas would love to question further about the use of it, but found himself no need for that, as the chatty Douglas continued immediately, "Despite its small size, it is capable of focusing immense amounts of energy at its center!"

"Then… it would mean!?" Zero quickly understood the purpose of the item, and for a second, he did not want to believe it.

"Yes… it would make sense that the Repliforce do intend to use it to wipe out the entire Earth."

Signas calmly answered and confirmed Zero's fears. Dr. Thoth, more and more powerless and unable to handle the war any further, did nothing more than tremble uncontrollably on his seat. He had pretty much let Signas and the others take command of the Maverick Hunters, particularly during this dreadful period of war.

"In order to create their own utopia… without humans, only Reploids. I suppose they are trying to abandon the Earth in search for a new planet." Dusk Rifle, the commander of the third Sniper Unit, contemplated deeply as he attempted to piece the broken puzzles together, with every clue they had now. "Could it be that they are building a large spaceship?"

"Now that you mentioned it… Alia, show us an overhead view of the Repliforce H.Q." Signas ordered.

"Roger." Came a firm female voice, it was Alia, although absent in the room, she was the head of the navigators that had their eyes all over the place, including the conference room.

The huge screen that was housed inside the room lit up, providing clear images of the busy Repliforce H.Q. that always had Reploids shuffling around doing various work.

"I do not see any signs of a spaceship being built." Network Beetle mentioned, his huge eyes glued to the screen.

The drone spying on the enemy moved around, shifting the perspective to different nearby locations.

"Notice how the area, north of the H.Q., is totally empty." Zero spotted something and immediately raised his suspicions.

"The surrounding area is pretty much empty after they cleared everything in a 50 unimeter radius around the H.Q." Beetle answered.

"The area north of it is much larger." Zero added.

"Ah! You are right!"

To everyone's realization, the area Zero pointed was much vast than any other blank space around its proximity. There was at least a 10 unimile area that was covered with nothing but plain dirt.

"Could it be…"

"Emergency! The Repliforce had launched multiple attacks across several locations! I repeat, this is an emergency! The Repliforce had launched multiple attacks across several locations!" Just before Signas could provide his insight, the alarm blared loudly disrupting everyone's thought patterns.

"Speak of the devil…" Commander Rifle hissed, upset at the fact that the Repliforce wasn't going to give them any breathing room.

It wasn't long that a detailed report on the attacks was in the hands of Dr. Thoth, who eventually passed the baton to Signas and Zero, two of the most esteemed commanders in the room.

"The war is in your hands…" he spoke very softly, none of the others could hear it. Besides being present and hearing the discussion from the others, he could not bring himself provide any assertion to the table, his heavy guilt would no longer allow him to continue as a supreme commander.

How weak humans could be… in front of these Reploids.

"Three locations at once… and they weren't small scale ones." Signas began.

"Read them all out aloud." Zero urged.

"The Bio Laboratory at K City is the first in the list, it was abandoned some time ago, but apparently it was reactivated just 2 days before. It was reported to spread out toxic substances which destroyed the entire city."

Almost everyone gulped after hearing such a dreadful news. "So it was believed that the Repliforce are the ones behind it?" Zero asked.

"It was unconfirmed, but we cannot let it be at its current state. Let's go through the other two locations as well before deploying our men, shall we?" Signas continued.

Zero grunted, his mind more frustrated as this meeting time passed every ticking second with him sitting inside doing nothing. Despite suffering no major injuries in his recent Military Train raid, he hardly received any rest. He did not want any anyway, growing more and more restless as the war dragged on.

"Next up is the Cyber Space which affected the largest scale among the three attacks. The entire network was a havoc thanks to Cyber Peacock, who apparently went Maverick. The cause was unknown, but reports are saying the Repliforce are using it as an advantage to block out any communication that may impose on them."

"Lastly, the Marine Base of City C. Probably the one we should prioritize, seeing how close it is to our H.Q., we shouldn't postpone the operation on it any later. It was reported that a Maverick had just destroyed the Marine Base and fled to the sea, currently still on a rampage in City C."

"I guess that's all of them," said Network Beetle calmly. "Needless to say, Cyber Peacock is mine for the taking?"

When it involved diving into the network, Network Beetle was the man to refer to. His division, the 19th Unit Net Division specialized in maintaining the proper operations of the global network. He was already aware of an abnormality in the Cyber Space, yet it was so recent and they were in the middle of an important briefing that he was still not deployed to confront Cyber Peacock.

"Naturally," Signas admitted, "The network is yours. Having you with us, we feel at ease when it comes to issues with the network. Now, for the remaining two locations…"

"I will chase down the perpetrator of destruction of City C. In pursuit cases like these, my unit is the most efficient." Zero stood up and commented.

"But… your unit was severely fatigued from the train raid, are you certain?" Signas asked.

"It's better to have you here watching the war, I still have half of my men, and I am in good shape, I will go." Zero insisted, and Signas could not turn down the favor, he batted an eye onto the supreme commander, whose face was lowered all the time. Dr. Thoth did not move an inch from the arbitrary silence, prompting Signas to take the decision to himself.

"Very well, Zero, you will lead the pursuit."

"Then all that's left is the Bio Laboratory," Commander Rifle spoke on, "my Sniper Unit could easily peek into the lab and see what's wrong with it, and eliminate the threat from a distance."

"Indeed, then it's settled. Let us all move." Signas said with sufficient urgency and firmness in it. The decision was quickly made, yet it sounded sensible enough that none of them objected.

Things do turn for the better ever since they received information regarding the undisclosed construction going on at the Repliforce H.Q., the scales did seem to begin its tilt.

* * *

"Zero!" Douglas yelled at a sprinting Zero, whom already stretched some distances away despite leaving from the same room at the same time.

"What is it? Douglas? I am sorry but be quick with it." Zero hardly got time to spare, this was probably the most critical moment of the war, and he knew the Maverick Hunters had no time to lose. Every second counts. Any delay and City C was gonna be wiped out sooner.

"You will need… every power ups available!" Douglas made it as brief as he could, quickly running up to Zero and installing the modified chip into his system.

Zero shut his eye, "Tenkuuha" had been registered into his weapon bank.

"Hand over the chip you got from the previous mission as well."

Zero complied, but not without asking "still, you will need more time to analyze and modify it for me to use, right?"

"Not anymore," Douglas said with a large grin, "I've developed an adapter which allows me to instantly translate the Repliforce chips, enabling you to be compatible." As he went on, he took out a modest sized, rectangular black box which had a recess that was initially round, but immediately changed its shape the moment a recognized chip was inserted. A small monitor attached to it then began displaying the decrypting and reconfiguring progress, which responded to Douglas's quick eyes by reading the prompts and swift fingers inputting the necessary commands on the keys located below the recess.

The whole process only took around half a minute, "done!" Exclaimed Douglas. "Now install it."

Zero did so, seconds later, his own eye display read - "Shippuuga" had been registered into the database.

"Great, thanks, Douglas. You are indeed the best mechanic we have."

"So don't forget to drop by anytime you have a chip, I will collect those from the other commanders as well. We will need every single upgrade we can find if we want to win this war."

Zero nodded with full agreement, and dashed to the departure bay, where he would be needing a speed chaser for the upcoming mission.

He also hoped to meet with Iris again before departing to City C, however, there was not a single moment spared seeing how Jet Stingray was running riot and it was of utmost priority to stop him.

 _I will return as soon as I can, wait for me, Iris._


	17. 16: Marine Base (2) - Race Against Time

**Chapter 16: Marine Base (II) – Race Against Time**

Zero arrived to the departure bay, looking extremely relieved as he saw the rest of his team in standby.

"You are late, commander!" Quartz was the first to notice a hurrying Zero entering the bay, waving his arm to him.

Besides the more energetic Quartz, only Lapis, the most experienced among them, Sapphire, still in low spirits after the loss of her dearest friend, Ruby, and Emerald, the less talkative green-model reploid. Dia and Onyx were still receiving repairs.

"You okay, Sapphire?" Zero approached the dispirited blue comrade to ensure she's ready for the mission.

Sapphire took a brief moment to prepare herself, then looked up to her commander with renewed vigor, "yes! Sir!" She saluted Zero with her loudest voice and strong gesture. Her voice still barely shaking, but Zero was more than satisfied with how she handled the situation.

"Excellent," Zero began, "this is another one of those critical ones, we will be riding these land chasers to track down the perpetrator who took down city C. There are reports that the Repliforce took down the city's underground power station, causing a huge explosion…" Zero paused a while, gritting his teeth as he hissed in disgust, thinking how cowardly Repliforce was, attacking cities at random and causing many casualties, what's worse, the cities were the ones populated mostly by humans. "Many were killed. Anyhow, we have reports that they are going to attack the neighbouring cities as well, so we must make haste!"

"Roger!" All 4 replied in unison.

* * *

Charging in with their land chasers, the Shinobi Unit raced down the burned city. Closer to the center of the city, where the power station exploded, a huge crater was found, devouring every building, reploids and humans into its wake. Skyscrapers were mostly lit up with fire and smoke, glass and concrete shattered.

Such an obnoxious scenery, reminded Zero of the horrors of Sky Lagoon…

 _I cannot believe this! Even if the Repliforce wasn't the perpetrator of Sky Lagoon's fall, this… this…_

Zero gaped with disbelief, the damage was too great, too severe. Thousands had died and who knows how many more were injured. In an instant the city was reduced to rubble.

Yet the enemy was nowhere to be found.

"Distress call from the Marine Base! I repeat, distress call from the Marine Base! Zero, head over there immediately!" The navigator issued a panic order, prompting the zeroth unit to follow suit.

"Commander, this could be a trap by the Repliforce!" Lapis yelled out while they were charging headlong towards the Marine Base located just around twenty unimeters away. It was well within sight.

Zero did not immediately answer, his gaze fixated towards the Marine Base, which still looked unharmed at the moment, but anything could happen during such a critical moment.

… and it happened right away.

A blast could be heard and a patch of smoke began rising up from one corner of the roof of the base.

"Dammit!" Zero stomped onto the throttler and dashed ahead of his team, his emotion got the better of him.

"Commander!" His members quickly gave chase, following their unnerved leader. "Keep a hold on yourself!" Emerald shouted through the top of her lungs.

They charged straight in into the Maverick Hunters Marine Base, inside are members manning the base struggling to hold off the attackers. Zero eyed and searched for their insignia, which revealed themselves as soldiers from Repliforce.

 _It's them!_

Zero gripped hard the handle of the Land Chaser and steered himself with utmost precision to avoid his allies and putting himself in a better position to blast the enemies, once in target, he stamped on the button atop the very same handle he had been choking, rapidly firing energy blasts, taking down the Hover Gunners that had been plaguing the base's defense for a while.

"Commander Zero!" His allies hastily recognize him and addressed him promptly. He gave no reply, still rushing towards the deeper interior of the base and firing down any enemies he encountered.

Instead, Lapis did the questioning in his superior's place. "What happened here? Who attacked us? When did it start?" A barrage of short questions came out of his mouth as he stopped down a little to ask them, his other teammates continued their pursuit. Before Lapis received the first answer for any of his questions, an explosion occurred again just nearby, prompting him to press his replier down and together they hugged the ground to brace themselves from any falling debris. He glanced up, and at the top of his eye, something zipped through the ceiling at high speed.

"Commander Zero, you copy? Something just dashed right past my location at high speed! An explosion was started at the location it left behind!" Lapis quickly grabbed his communicator to update his commander, from his receiver all he could hear sounds of shrapnels hitting the ground from the battles and the sound of his commander's Z-Saber slicing through metal, presumably the enemy. Briefly after, came a reply, "copy that." Lapis sighed with relief.

At least his superior was still sane.

"It's… It's the Repliforce! They attacked us out of nowhere without warning just a few minutes ago! Half of our defenses were wiped out instantly, I don't think we could hold out much longer!" The Maverick Hunter finally replied with a shaky voice, obviously traumatized.

Lapis patted the shoulder of the Reploid, nodded, and dashed away to join the fray.

To deal with Hover Gunners and Hornets, Zero had to steer his Land Chaser with as much skill as he had. The Gunners tended to flock together and fired bullets at fixed and random directions, those may accumulate together and becoming impossible to dodge by steering away from them. Thankfully, Zero had received the Tenkuuha upgrade to his Z-Saber, the purple energy arising from it was able to cut down energy projectiles, rendering them useless as long as Zero was able to wipe them out. On the other hand, Hornets, the Repliforce's answer to soldiers mounting on the same Land Chasers he had been riding on, were no pushovers as they were the recon scouts of the Repliforce, with riding skills comparable to each and every member of the Shinobi Unit.

Using the Land Chaser, Zero was able to fire energy projectiles to take down opponents from far away. For anything close by, he could resort to a dashing attack simply by lifting his Land Chaser and stepping on the gas, the added acceleration from the igniter created a drive blade at its rear, incinerating anything that came in contact with it. If both of these failed, Zero would brandish his Z-Saber and slice anything within his range. Quartz, Sapphire and Emerald followed his back and provided cover.

"Look out! Something's catching up from behind real fast!" The navigator in their coms systems yelled.

"It must be what Lapis was warning us about, stay focused!" was the reply from the leader of the zeroth unit.

"Commander, behind you!" This time it was Quartz who shouted through his mechanical voice chords. They were not given even a millisecond to breathe, as the moment Zero glanced over his right shoulder, a silver shadow was diving right into him with unbelievable speed. Zero pulled his Land Chaser all the way to the left, barely avoiding the thunderous opponent by an inch, as his vehicle had been left spinning and himself being flung away from the disastrous momentum.

The mysterious attacker stopped a little in the air after grazing the ground, his attacking pattern started from above, swooping down below, and returning back up to realign himself for the next attack. He stared at the astonished Shinobi Unit for a while, left a smirk, and zipped ahead towards the other exit of the Marine Base.

"Jet… Stingray. The Aqua Destroyer, this is the first time I've met him, another powerful foe." Zero slowly got up and pulled himself back onto the Land Chaser. _Why on earth did he not finish us up?_ The Maverick Hunters were left baffled for a moment, couldn't grasp the reason they survived the ambush attack coming so ferociously from the Repliforce commander.

Again, the reason became apparent to them shortly after, as chain explosions, erupting one by one from the entrance they once emerged. "No! Our allies are still behind!" Quartz exclaimed, "Lapis!" Immediately noticing one of their veteran members weren't around yet.

It didn't take long for Lapis to show himself, dashing past his comrades without stopping nor slowing down, "Hurry and catch up! We have to make it to the other side of the Base!" He added into the communications system. Upon receiving his words, the rest of the team followed suit, chasing down the hall of the Marine Base.

"What happened?" Zero asked.

"Repliforce had already planted time bombs throughout the entire Base! They planned to wipe us all out in it!"

 _What!?_ Zero was left bemused, _how could they planted those bombs in such a short notice, without anyone from our side noticing?_ This was a Maverick Hunters' Marine Base, having it under attack without them knowing beforehand didn't sound plausible at all, they were notified of attacks from City C, not from the Base. If anything, they would provide backup on the assault on City C, delaying its destruction, however, it was the opposite.

As if the Marine Base was sabotaged. It was simply foolishness and recklessness of Zero to rush into the Base at the sight of the first explosion.

Did rage finally get the better on him? Causing him to lead his entire team into jeopardy? It almost happened at the Military Train, and now this.

The only thing going on in his mind, was how he was going to end the war by stopping the Repliforce, defeat them, and peace would be restored… However, the cost for it seemed to be far greater than he would've imagined…

"Commander Zero!" Sapphire's high-pitched squeal jolted him out from his line of thought immediately. As his mind returned to the scene, an enemy hornet came flying towards his way from the opposite direction, attempting a kamikaze attack to slow down the Maverick Hunters. At a whim, Zero puilled out his Z-Saber, "Raijingeki!" and infused it with lightning energy, zapping the hornet down and brought it to pieces after a delayed explosion that caused no harm from the ongoing Hunters.

If anything, the Maverick Hunters should've faulted themselves for falling into traps as simple as these. This was a large scale war, not a mere Maverick Operation.

The Repliforce was never easy opponents, their sheer force and numbers backed that fact, doubled with their powerful leadership.

However, this wasn't the time to be bothered with the ambush, Zero was perfectly aware of this, thus he fixated his gaze ahead, towards the other side of the exit, towards where Jet Stingray fled to.

"Time to take down one of the top guns in Repliforce," Zero said in a very firm tone, rushing in immediately after without a moment's delay. His remaining members of the zeroth unit followed suit.

The Marine Base was quickly crumbling with precisely timed bombs ticking off one after another, chasing behind them like hot lava. Amidst the pursuit towards the exit, the Repliforce threw in a few Hornets going to opposite way attempting to halt the Shinobi Unit, all committing suicide during the process.

They ducked on the oncoming Hornets that leaped high trying to aim at their heads, and jumped on those that went low trying to crash into their Land Chasers head on. Blasting them when they were spotted some distances away was also an option. With careful maneuver and accurate sniping, Zero and co. made their way towards the exit as chains of explosions ended their pursuit.

Right back into the bright sunlight, they were now zipping through water, where the Marine Base received their cargo and goods. The Base was an important asset for the Maverick Hunters, securing their supply from the water route, and providing naval defenses whenever necessary.

All that was gone when the Base was sabotaged.

"Spikes!" Emerald yelled, spotting red colored spikes, shaping like a ball with protruding sharp ends all over it, should a Land Chaser running at full speed happen to step onto it, it would definitely send the rider flying and disintegrating the ride in the process.

The first thing that came into mind to dodge these spikes was simply to jump over them. While trying to do so, Jet Stingray appeared from behind and charged his way through, this time in a straight line through the air instead of descending in a curve at high speed.

"What!? How could he be behind us!?" Lapis yelled in surprise.

"We did not spot him all the way towards the exit of the Base, he could simply hide somewhere and wait for us to pass," Onyx explained.

"Focus on all directions, and take him down." Zero assured his comrades, while giving a dire instruction that was not filled with mercy in any form. His tone was utterly cold and emotionless.

As if something inside him woke up.

But none of his members noticed anything peculiar about their commander, Zero was always extremely professional in his missions anyway.

Zipping far ahead and missing all his targets, Jet turned and faced the pursuers on his tail, then grabbed his knee, opening a contraction embedded on it, releasing several small, mechanical stingrays that fell straight down into the water and dashing towards the Maverick Hunters at high speed seconds after it hit the ground.

"Projectiles! Incoming from underneath us!" Lapis yelled.

Zero grabbed his Z-Saber out from his rear, stepped on the gas to give himself a strong boost, then he dragged his Z-Saber digging through the water floor, beaming in a sharp pink tone instead of the dark purplish tone imbued by Tenkuuha.

"Shippuuga!" Zero then swung the blade with absolute force assisted from the dashing momentum, slicing through most of the stingray projectiles before they even had the chance to change their course. The few leftover ones were easily dodged or destroyed by the zeroth unit members tailing from behind.

Jet Stingray was left amused, getting more serious and accepted the challenge from the commander of the Shinobi Unit of the Maverick Hunters.

He repeated that downward charge he performed in the Marine Base, aiming at Zero, but this time with even greater speed than before. Zero could only leaped with his Land Chaser at the right moment, unable to squeeze an attack in. Jet shot up just in front of the rest of the pack, causing them to stomp on the brakes a little or else they would be caught in the momentum.

Now Zero was even further away from his comrades. Jet seized this opportunity and performed the same attack again, this time from behind Zero. Zero, unable to hear the warnings coming out from his comrades mouths, slid quickly to the left and held his Z-Saber up, as Jet passed by the spot just within the range of his blade, he swiped it down attempting to slice the enemy into half. But he missed the mark due to Jet's supreme agility.

Zero, slightly pissed off, dashed forwards to cut his distance from Jet who just flew up from the aftermath of his previous attack. Zero knew if he was directly underneath Jet, he wouldn't be able to use that downwards charging attack as the arch of the movement was in such a way that being right underneath the attacker at the beginning of the attack would be safe.

Then, by being right underneath Jet, it would be the perfect setup for Zero to use Ryuuenjin.

Jet laughed away at the plan Zero was trying, seeing right through it, and shifted his body in a way that his head was facing the ground. Then he kicked the air, propelling himself towards the ground. This was a nosedive.

 _A nosedive!_ Zero immediately slammed on the brakes, halting the Land Chaser as it screeched harshly on the water floor, Jet missed him just by few centimeters away, and slamming through the ground, creating a huge hole in the path. Zero, going from full speed to a sudden stop, found his vehicle being launched forwards from the powerful momentum. Reacting as best as he could, he grabbed the handle hard, flinging himself upwards as the back side of the Land Chaser began lifting itself off the ground. Using his body as a steering, he turned the Land Chaser 360 degrees, his head facing the huge hole Jet left in the process, in which he could see another hole being drilled through horizontally, indicating Jet could be anywhere in front.

The distance he flung himself was sufficient to cover enough ground that he did not have to fall into the gap left by Jet. Upon returning onto flat ground, he quickly started his Land Chaser back up and weaved through the water floor, trying to guess the location of Jet Stingray underneath the surface, where he could well be preparing for another attack.

It did not take long for Jet to show back up, shoving through the ground and breaking through the surface, leaving no chance for Zero to dodge this time, sending him and his Land Chaser onto the sky. His vehicle totally wrecked by the powerful attack, Zero was also thankful that the Land Chaser acted as a shield protecting him to some degree.

Now in midair, Zero knew this would be his last chance to attack, or else the enemy would not be possible to be defeated nor tracked down without a vehicle.

Zero quickly came up with his best attack in midair. "Hyouretsuzan!" Surrounding his Z-Saber with a thick coating of ice, Zero stabbed his blade downwards, aiming directly into Jet's torso just underneath him.

With the extra mobility he possessed in the air, Jet Stingray rolled his body to one side, but his left leg was still caught by the blade of ice, freezing it and detaching it from the body. The frozen leg fell right down towards the ground together with Zero on his powerful momentum downwards, but Jet remained airborne, one leg missing.

Zero looked up upon the snickering Repliforce officer, who fled the scene as fast as he could. Zero could only stared from afar, his comrades arriving on their vehicles when it was already too late.

"Commander Zero! Are you okay?" Zero paid no attention to the most expected question that will first blurted out by his men, the only thing in his head, was how this operation was a failure, the enemy fled, the marine base destroyed, the city was in flames, casualties were innumerable, they did nothing to the benefit of the Maverick Hunters.

They were extremely fortunate to suffer minimal loss.

"Emergency! This is a very urgent matter!" Their coms blared out with the speaker sounded extremely agitated, the voice obviously panting, "All units are to head towards the Repliforce HQ immediately! The Repliforce had already erected a fully operational Space Port!"

"What!?" Why!?" Zero immediately questioned, his comrades also wondered the same.

"Further details will be briefed as you arrive." Much to Zero's chagrin, however, a preset answer was all he would have to settle for now.

"Damn it!" Out of extreme anger, the red commander slammed the severed leg he held in his hand hard to the ground, stomping it into pieces without hesitation. "So that was their intention all along!"

It was simply naive of them to keep trying to reduce the number of human casualties, from the first minute the war erupted, he should've known the ultimate goal of the Repliforce. A nation, a utopia, only for Reploids… that was precisely what General had declared during their independence speech. Zero never thought they would go as far as abandoning, no, destroying Earth. That would mean they would openly rebelled against their human creators, something that contradicted General's speech.

 _Something happened, and they changed their mind… They must be stopped!_

Zero had doubts over eliminating his previously trusted allies. Now, there was no second choice available.

No more mercy.


	18. 17: Space Port (1) - Reluctant Conflict

Chapter 17: Space Port (I): Reluctant Conflict

"Iris! Where are you?" Every available member of the Shinobi Unit had rushed to the Space Port, except for their commander. Zero instead returned to the Maverick Hunters HQ as soon as he could.

Just to ensure Iris was still here.

"Iris! Iris!" Every room, every corner, even the darkest spots Zero knew of, Iris was nowhere to be found. He tried to contact her countless times, but there was never an answer from the other side.

The entirety of Maverick Hunters HQ was quiet, too quiet, bar a few Reploids who remained to maintain the operation of the HQ, the majority of the troops had already entered the warzone. Every step Zero took, he could clearly hear his footsteps reverberating throughout the halls.

"Iris! No…" Every second that ticked on fidgeted Zero more and more. His greatest fears came true, it was extremely difficult to convince Iris to change sides and side with the Maverick Hunters, not while the Repliforce was still going strong, not while her brother Colonel was still around…

If anything, Iris's unwavering love towards Colonel was the only thing Zero could not win her over. As for having the ideal world where only Reploids exist? She would definitely choose that world instead of the present one. Repliforce were always belittled by their human creators, as they were seen as inferior backup for the Maverick Hunters.

It was a flawed plan to begin with, nobody would stand living in inferiority and mortification throughout their lives, even if they were robots, Reploids. Once the program from X's was installed into their systems, they too, possessed humanly behavior.

"Zero! Zero! Are you there?"

"Douglas."

Douglas quickly chased down the red commander, huffed a little while catching his breath , handled 2 chips to him when he felt ready to speak without panting too much. "These are all battle chips obtained by defeating the Mavericks from the previous missions, Split Mushroom and Cyber Peacock were eliminated effectively. We will need all the powerups we can get."

"I fully agree." Zero took those chips and installed them into his system. "Rakuhouha and Kuuenbu" he muttered, then looked up with renewed confidence, masking his anxiety and uneasiness regarding Iris. "Now we have to move on to the Space Port."

"Wait… where are the rest of your unit?"

"I asked them to go ahead." Zero had a flash of thought, it wouldn't harm asking… "do you know where Iris is?"

"Iris…?" Douglas began to stammer, "she just left…"

"When!? Who was it that asked her to leave!? Was it Colonel!?" Zero's fuse immediately blew up, grabbing Douglas at his neck, pulling him closer that their nose almost sticking.

"Nobody noticed her leaving! Seriously!" Douglas pushed Zero's arm as hard as he could, but could only freed himself as the furious commander let go of his grip.

 _Dammit!_ Zero dashed as fast as he could to the departure gate, ignoring Douglas repeatedly calling his name and asking him to wait.

* * *

"Iris." Colonel extended his hand for his sister as he used the other to cling on the door of a spaceship about to blast its way towards space. His crestfallen sister, never once was her head lifted since she departed from the Maverick Hunters HQ, refused to look into her brother's eye this time around.

"Iris," Colonel called her again, "we do not have much time." His voice bore a stricter tone this time.

"Brother…" Iris could not find any words that were appropriate during this moment, nor had she found any motivation to move a single step away from the very spot she was standing on. Her heart still severely conflicted, torn between two choices deemed impossible to choose from. Brother, or Lover? Utopia, or Harmony? Would there even be harmony between humans and Reploids? Was it even possible that two totally different beings, living together side by side, would have a total mutual understanding and respect to each other?

No. This point alone was clear to her, it would be a lot easier to achieve harmony if there were only Reploids. Reploids were created equal, they understood each other very well, it would be difficult for them to have any conflicts, unless they turned Maverick, but even so, why would a Reploid turn Maverick in the first place? Was it due to a programming error?

Or was it… that the emotion "anger" had gotten the better of them?

Iris finally lifted her head, a luminous glow shone bright amongst the murky chaos that clouded the deepest irises of her eye. Colonel was well aware of the inner conflict his sister had to went through, but he had to insist, his mind had to be clear, at this moment, for Repliforce, and for Iris.

"Come." Colonel again extended his hand, no other words were needed in this very moment.

Iris grabbed hold of his hand, and stepped into the spaceship, which took off immediately after loading in their last passenger. Colonel stayed behind, gazing far upon the numerous gun fires and explosions that took off distances away.

* * *

"X! One of the spaceships are leaving!"

"Be quick with it! Stop them at all costs! Let that one be their last to depart!" X, now fully upgraded and equipped in his best armor, he was all geared up for the mission. Unlike his normal, rounded, blue suit, the one he had featured white all around, his trademark blue mixed with hints of red and orange, filled up the lines around his shoulder, chest and limbs. This armor of his gave him a more commanding presence, he looked bigger, without it he would appear a lot smaller and less intimidating.

X charged his shot for a brief moment, and unleashed it towards the Repliforce crowd. A huge whitish-blue energy was released, it wasn't particularly fast, but the speed was sufficient that it caught the enemies off guard, blasting them off from the elevated platform they were in, as well as severing a few pillars supporting the platform, yet not enough to take it down. Upon first contact, a large, blue plasma energy sphere will be left in its wake for approximately 3 seconds, damaging all that came too close to it.

Zero appeared just in time to witness such a powerful upgrade. "X! Brilliant shot!" He said to his old friend, finally working together in the same mission during this great war.

"This upgrade was specially left by Dr. Light in case of emergency, I think there are no events more suited than this to use it!" He gave Zero a brief explanation, charged the next shot up, and went ahead on his own, taking down more opponents.

This war zone between the Maverick Hunters and the Repliforce was probably the first large-scale skirmish they had ever clashed since the start of the war. Zero took a quick glance on the ongoing chaos, in which both troops were seemingly deployed at full force. When observed at a closer scale, both troops were ironically similar in many ways, their basic designs were identical except for the insignia they wore on the chest; the weapons were hardly different as well. The biggest difference? The ones leading them.

"Commander Zero!" All members of the Shinobi Unit had rendezvoused at one point, waiting their commander to arrive. With utmost discipline, they gathered in a straight line in front of their leader, awaiting orders.

Zero took a quick look around, and noticed Signas just nearby, taking charge of the entire operation. "Signas!" He yelled out, loud enough for the acting supreme commander of the Maverick Hunters to heed him and turn his head around. "Brief me more about the operation!" He asked, running his way towards the navy blue commander.

At close up, Signas was significantly taller than Zero, he stood straight and firm, a powerful aura of dominance around him. Zero felt his chest was never as large as it was now, his six signature green orbs lining his chest glittered brighter today. Without a doubt, he was in command, right now. "Zero," he began, "I need not remind you that this operation is of utmost priority, yet you arrived late!" And so it started with a lecture.

"Sorry about that, but…"

"Iris would be in that spaceship over there, it is about to take off anytime now," Signas was fully aware of the reason Zero showed up late, not needing him to explain the situation. The two of them had worked for quite some time in the HQ as well, and Zero's relationship with Iris was never a secret among them. "You'd best hurry, stop them! We do not know their intention of launching those things into space yet!" Immediately after, he turned his attention towards Alia, "How is it? Can you pinpoint their destination?"

"I am getting images of what seems to be a space station or sorts floating in space!" Alia stated firmly to ensure she would not have to repeat any of it in case Signas missed a single word from her stuttering or unclear speech, "It shaped like a flower with 8 petals, and its size is huge! As large as a planet, easily!"

"A space colony, a home in space. So, they have found their utopia by building one themselves." Signas hissed slightly, disappointed that it took them so long to find out. Had they knew what was coming way earlier, they would have a much larger advantage against the Repliforce. After all this time, Repliforce had cleverly bought themselves ample time to prepare all these, all the while keeping the Maverick Hunters busy by creating countless diversions and chaos. Although shrewd, Signas had to compliment General and Colonel for their tactical brilliance.

But Signas was not about to give up just yet. He had his best men with him right now, and the scales were still even. "Disrupt them! Delay them by all means!" He had let out his fastest troops to charge straight into the heart of the Space Port, to the launch pad. The Repliforce had mounted a powerful defense and it was extremely difficult to crack it open. He did not stop there, however, attacking alone would not be enough to win this war, he also ordered some of his men to head back to the HQ and prepare as many spaceships as they could spare, in case the Repliforce made it to space, they would have to resume their pursuit.

"Update! Commander! Upon rotation of the space colony, I came across what it seemed to be a large cannon!"

"What!?" Signas rushed to Alia's monitor to see for himself, "this…" While the spaceship looked like an eight-petalled space colony at first glance, its stalk was actually a large cannon. The worst case scenario immediately flashed inside Signas's thought circuits - that cannon would be effectively used to destroy the Earth, incinerating all their wretched creators in the flames of destruction and doom. "Are you going this far, Repliforce?" Signas gritted his teeth, his calm demeanor gradually fading as it transformed into anger, his fist clasped hard and shaking.

Alia noticed her commander's anger, and said no more. Instead focusing on her screen, monitoring several conditions at once - their control station right here, the movements of most of the Maverick Hunters, the spaceship that was about to launch, and also that ominous space center that also gave her the creeps.

Zero looked on to the launching pad high and far ahead of him. Both troops were deadlocked in a stalemate, the Maverick Hunters trying their utmost to break through the impenetrable defenses set up by the Repliforce. On numbers alone, the Repliforce greatly outnumbered the Hunters, however, the Hunters had vast abundance of experience and exceptional commanders, which gave them sufficient advantage to rebalance the scales.

However, at the current state, none would be able to tilt the flow of the battle within a short time.

 _If only I could reach the launch pad myself, I may be able to find Colonel up there, and Iris._

Zero launched himself ahead of his pack, charging in at exceptional speed, his eyes focused on the tallest platform of the launch pad, where he believed, in absolute desperation, that Iris would still be there. It became the only thing in his mind, to keep him sane in this operation.

"Commander!" Onyx yelled in surprise, being the first one catching their leader dashing away without them. "Give chase! Follow Commander Zero! Hurry!" All members of the zeroth unit attempted, their hardest, to pursue their leader.

"It's useless, I don't think anyone could catch up with Zero when he's at his swiftest," Signas grinned slightly, X overheard him and glanced a smile as well. Signas did not issue the halt command to the Shinobi Unit, since infiltration into the midst of the enemy ranks were their specialty after all. A hit and run tactic might be just the thing they needed to edge out the Repliforce now.

His team tried their utmost to catch up with their commander but it was futile. Their red leader somehow seemed a lot faster than his usual best today, his movements were far crisper than any of them could recall, every single step he took to climb the launch pad was chosen meticulously, taking every shortest distance possible. Should an enemy be in his way, he would simply dispatch of it as if swatting a fly away.

Against the towering platforms, Zero would just grab on anything he could, lifted himself up, and gave himself a kick on again, anything he could, just to provide him the extra height he needed to grab on something higher. Rinse and repeat. Any Reploids trying to stop him, he would just sliced them down like butter. Any enemy coming from above would just work to his advantage, as a powerful Ryuuenjin would immediately fry anything in its way, and made it closer to Zero towards his goal. If a single jump would not be enough, his newly acquired Kuuenbu and Kuuenzan would do the trick.

Before long, Zero found himself at the top of the launching pad, in the middle of the enemy's' territory, without anyone to back him up.

"Colonel," he started, facing the only opponent in front of him. He glanced around, saw no signs of anyone else, not General, and not Iris.

 _Iris is not here…_


	19. 18: Space Port (2): Death Rematch

Chapter 18: Space Port (II): Death Rematch

"I see you are looking for Iris," Colonel returned, immediately noticing the anxious wandering glances from the red Maverick Hunter.

"Then, there's no need to say anything more."

"Iris had already left, to a utopia we had created." Both leaders were calm at this moment, their mind sharp and in full alert, preparing for any ambush attacks the other might unleash.

"Did you attempt to move all Reploids to this utopia you are talking about?" said Zero, coming up with such a conclusion on his way here.

"Precisely, I expected no less from you, Zero. This utopia would be a haven for Reploids only, we sent them there with these spaceships, and left the humans here, unharmed. Why would you point your guns towards us?"

"Why would we point out guns towards you?" Zero immediately cut in after Colonel finished his question, "what about that large cannon in this utopia of yours? What is it for?"

"Zero…"

Zero had expected as much. It was a noble cause to move Reploids to a new settlement, in the name of peace in a new utopia, however, it would violate all oaths and rules set by the human creators that Reploids were supposed to obey. Reploids would never betray their human masters, Reploids would always protect their human masters, and Reploids should never consider living on their own without their human masters.

What if a Maverick outbreak occurs? A mass malfunction and system failure among a group of Reploids? Without the human masters, the brains behind all mathematical formulations, could the Reploids sort it all out by themselves? Sure, they could calculate equations and provide solutions at a much faster rate than a human brain could, however, any abhorrent computations in the Reploid's brain would only spell disaster.

Surely, the wise Colonel and General would have already thought this far? If so, why would they insist on creating a utopia of their own? Something did not spell right for Zero.

"Would it be to strike down Earth? To eradicate everyone else in it? Answer me, Colonel!"

Colonel did not immediately respond, instead, his head was slightly lowered.

"Colonel!" Zero reiterated, demanding an answer.

"I have no answer for you, my friend. I had already stated our stance from the very beginning, in Sky Lagoon, we will never drop our weapons, nor surrender!"

Zero gradually stepped forward, closing his gap with Colonel, leaving it far enough that their swords would barely touch each other if both were pointed straight towards their opponent. "Then, I must put you to rest, and get to Iris." He drew his Z-Saber out, now spotting a purplish hue as opposed to the usual greenish hue from their duel in front of the Maverick Hunters HQ previously.

Colonel looked pleased, the previous encounter with the red Hunter was very displeasing, Zero was injured and far from his best. If he wanted to truly best his rival, this would seem to be the perfect time.

"Try it if you may." Colonel pulled out his blue saber as well, holding it in front of him, closing all openings.

"Iris would be sad if she loses you."

"Don't be so presumptuous, Zero! Save it until you had defeated me!"

In a flash, both sabers clashed into each other. Both of them the fastest fighters from each side, on this day, one of them were bound to perish.

Zero and Colonel had been rivals since the Maverick Hunters worked together with the Repliforce. Both had too many things in common. Highly ranked, preferred close combat, and speed was the very thing they were most confident of. Iris only served to bridge their relationship closer.

How ironic that it was also for Iris that fueled the battle spirit of both warriors at this moment.

It had come to a point where both of them knew this battle could only end when one had been destroyed, totally. Fate had been cruel to them both, soldiers whom were only loyal to their cause. To get to Iris, Zero must defeat Colonel, who would stand in his way. To ensure Iris remained loyal to the Repliforce, Colonel must defeat Zero, who might be influential enough to change his sister's mind.

Flashes of thoughts beamed through their thought circuits as their mechanical bodies brawl it out. Zero was more than capable to keep up with Colonel's speed now, catching him whenever he tried to dash around him to strike the surprise blow.

"Not as easy this time!" Taunted Zero, referring to their previous encounter where he got overpowered easily.

Colonel simply let out a short grunt and swung his saber downwards. Zero rose to parry it, putting his foe's blade to the side while he attempted to utilize this opening. Colonel however chose to back-step and with ease, got himself out of harm's way, Zero's horizontal counter only stroke air.

Zero did not let up, dashing forwards at his fastest to immediately get into Colonel's face. "Shipuuga!" He ducked slightly and pulled the Z-Saber from his left rear, rotating his torso in the process to generate centrifugal force to produce a powerful horizontal slash. The enhanced speed and power caused the purplish Z-Saber to glow red. The striking height was too low to be dodged downwards, aiming just above Colonel's knee, prompting for the Repliforce officer to had no choice but to leap to safety.

Of course, this was all anticipated by Zero, who seamlessly tucked his Z-Saber to his right closer to his body, and his knee too, soared upwards and swung his sword diagonally upwards towards his opponent. This time the Z-Saber flared brightly, a burning red flame exuded from it, threatening to char anything that was caught in its fury.

Colonel while airborne had no choice but to hold his saber in front and block the incoming attack. The sheer momentum and force proved to be too great to withstand as he was subsequently blown backwards and hit one of the pillars of the launching pad. With quick reflexes, he softened his landing impact by using his saber to support and steadied his legs to be prepared to land. The damage was reduced but still felt without a doubt.

Zero landed on the other side of the pad after finishing his combo of attacks. Surely some damage would have been dealt, apparent or not.

"Magnificent... What an arsenal..." Colonel smiled, his temperature circuits began to heat up to better promote his reflexes. This battle was becoming increasingly interesting. He slowly stood tall, grasped his saber hard.

"Take this!" From afar, he swung his sword forwards, as they cut through the air, beams of teal came flying out from his saber, as if summoned and materialized from the air he had just cut. This was a rare long ranged attack from Colonel, yet wasn't the first time Zero witnessed this.

Zero swayed his body left and right while gradually stepped forward to return himself to his best range. However the sword beams can also change their directions depending on how Colonel sliced the air. They may come in differing heights, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Colonel unleashed them at a rather fast rate so it was rather tricky for Zero to maneuver his way through.

As he saw a tall and horizontal beam, his eyes opened wide, seizing this as an opportunity. He dashed low and fast, again switching to his Shipuuga stance, pulling his sword to his left while rotated his torso to produce a more powerful strike. Colonel flashed a smirk, skidded to the right before the attack was released and found his way behind Zero who had thrown himself forward from the momentum of his own attack. Colonel stroke low, pulling his sword from the ground and dragged it upwards. Zero noticed this, resorted to rotate further so that his saber can reach Colonel's, forming a block.

Naturally, the one who was off balance would be the defeated in this singular duel. Zero was flung into the air with his trusted weapon sprang off his grip. Reacting to this as best as he could, Zero rolled his body to find the Z-Saber in midair, upon locating it, he activated the jet installed in his boots the moment he included Kuuenbu into his arsenal, giving him that extra jump which granted him sufficient distance to reach his sword. Upon landing, however, he found Colonel waiting for him, preparing for a second strike. Zero then rolled his body again, cutting things down in circular fashion - Kuuenzan. Colonel had to revert back to defense in the wake of this attack.

The extra momentum from Kuuenzan, the powerful torque forced Colonel to retrace some steps to evade the attack altogether than to parry it. He waited for the red Hunter to land, then produced his version of a low dash and charged towards Zero, in a similar move as Zero's Shipuuga minus the rotation, this way he would not lose much balance. Zero managed to block the attack, standing on one knee to give himself a sturdy base so that he would not be knocked off by Colonel again.

Colonel was slightly pissed that his attack did not work, he replied with a flurry of slashes, trying to mow Zero down without giving him the chance to stand back up. However, in this moment, Zero pulled off another one of his new moves - Rakuhouha, as he slammed the ground with his free palm and unleashed blue energy balls outwards from its center. Colonel again was forced into a defensive stance and leaped back, his sword placed in front to shield him from any incoming projectiles, which dissipated the moment they were blocked.

That move was intended to get Zero out of a tight spot. Zero lamented briefly the fact that he was forced to showcase more of his new moves to Colonel, greatly reducing the surprise factor he had. While he may look advantageous at this moment, his anxiety grew as he believed that Colonel had yet to pull everything out from his sleeves.

A snicker grew on Colonel's face. He had witnessed quite a number of Zero's new moves, and now be able to anticipate them better. _He had that low, rotational slash. Then the rising fire strike. He also had the ability to double jump in midair and he has a great attack there to stop me from catching him. Finally there's that energy projectile blast… there might be more but should be most of his new arsenal._

Colonel's eyes had changed, as if he smelled victory. _If so, I can win!_ He rushed towards Zero with his unbelievable agility, threw out a quick strike, which was parried by Zero as expected, and shifted around Zero, launching more quick attacks towards his foe. Zero waited patiently, stayed in the center of the circle where Colonel revolves around, and followed his movements. This attack was not unfamiliar to Zero as he had dealt with this before in the past. This was one of Colonel's favorite moves. Colonel would dash around his opponent with blinding speed, and threw swift, surprising attacks that would water down the opponent should they be unable to follow them. Zero was one of the fastest Reploids on the planet, however.

He waited for an opening, blocking and parrying everything Colonel dished to him. At the same time, he tried to read and predict Colonel's next move, so that he would return the surprise and strike back. _Now!_ As Zero blocked an attack from the right, he anticipated that the next attack would come behind him, and swung his blade earlier…

"It's over, Zero!" Colonel immediately halted his shuffle and leaped back, causing Zero to hit air and lost balance. Now with some distances between them, Colonel leaped high, and slammed the ground his hardest with his saber, "Ground Crush!" As he broke the surface and sent a huge energy shockwave towards Zero, who had yet to hold his ground.

The shockwave grew bigger as it travels further, akin an enlarging tsunami surging towards Zero. This was the first instance Zero had experienced this newly invented attack. The shockwave screeched across the metallic floor of the Space Port launchpad, which further distorted Zero's senses and affected his movements. Without time to spare, Zero dashed towards the nearest pillar and climbed it with absolute haste, then instinctively somersaulted past the shockwave, just barely.

The height was too great, and Zero spent too much time in the air, giving plenty of opportunity for Colonel to wait below him to launch another attack. Colonel's snicker widened, he pointed his trusty saber high onto the sky, through its tip it gathered and concentrated lightning. "Energy Breaker!" Colonel would then slam his supercharged saber straight down, diffusing the lightning across the ground, and send them jolting upwards towards the airborne Maverick Hunter.

 _Another attack that I've never seen before! Just how many attacks were he hiding!?_ In an unpleasant turn of events, this battle had escalated into a showcase of new techniques, Colonel did well to conceal them until they were needed, trapping Zero into a corner.

With only milliseconds to consider, Zero's computer brain processed tons of data simultaneously, while still airborne, it was in that instant that he saw an opening, a safe spot - the spot just above Colonel, where the lightning bolts would surely not hit him. Tapping the air with his right foot lightly, Zero leaped one more time, thanks to Kuuenbu, to complete the impossible jumping distance. Immediately after securing his defense, Zero also realized the perfect opportunity to attack.

"Hyouretsuzan!" Zero rained down onto Colonel with his freezing saber, plunging down at the same frightening speed as Energy Breaker's. The Repliforce, not anticipating such an attack, made a last ditch effort to shift his body away.

The sound of broken ice was heard throughout the Space Port as the rigid hard tip smashed the ground. Time had seemingly stopped for both of them, neither moved an inch, nor realizing theirs and their opponent's whereabouts. As Zero came to his senses, the entire place was surreal and blurry.

Slowly he looked around, his ear circuits slightly twitching from the close proximity of the bolts he just grazed by, the first thing he noticed was Colonel's leg, but it was isolated. He looked further, and saw a forlorn figure of the Repliforce leader lying on the ground motionless, without a good portion of his trusty right arm, and both his legs.

Colonel began to laugh bitterly, "well done, Zero!" He exhaled long with his eyes closed, and gazed upon the Maverick Hunter's eyes again, who was gradually moving towards him. "This victory is yours."

"Colonel," Zero paused after addressing his rival, not knowing any appropriate words to contribute, never had he witnessed his great opponent in such a pitiful state, the limbs that were severed had all their connections frozen, with tiny jolts emanating from them, the freezing effect effectively rendered any attempts to reconnect the limbs useless. Zero still found it difficult to believe that he had already won, should he be a fraction of a second later and out of position, he would be the one being fried alive. Colonel's Judgement Bolt was, without a doubt, a powerful attack, it was by sheer luck as well that he managed to land Hyouretsuzan with such impeccable timing and positioning. Should the same scenario played out again, Zero may not make it.

He was perfectly aware of this.

"I am going… to see Iris." Zero could only come up with such words, his eyes fixating only on the Final Weapon manifesting in the sky.

"Go to her, hurry." Colonel replied, his tone flat, yet all signs of hostility in his voice were gone. He was contented. It was a great battle, the two of them giving everything they had, and he was freed of any regrets before his end. "Farewell, old friend."

"Farewell, good friend." Zero turned his heel and gave the clear signal through his communication systems, the obstacle blocking their way to Final Weapon was removed.

* * *

"It'd be a waste to not make full use of this…"

Colonel's vision was left with almost nothing, through the vast blackness he could only grasp whatever little light his severely damaged eyes could. At best he could spot a figure of a person, relative hulking, with a bald head.

A sharp, electrifying pain originating from his chest pulsed through his entire body, leaving the once proud Repliforce commander to be writhing in pain, his vocal chords exploded from his extreme shril from the pain. Within seconds Colonel failed to move a single inch, his chest now a gaping hole.

In his hand, Sigma held on tight the combat chip of the fallen Reploid, grinning then laughing wildly, easing his way towards his private spaceship.


End file.
